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| Syria: Army retakes Damascus suburbs - live updates | Syria: Army retakes Damascus suburbs - live updates |
| (40 minutes later) | |
| 10.30am: The Syrian opposition has claimed that Bashar al-Assad's British-born wife Asma, tried to flee the country with help from the security forces. From the Jerusalem Post: | |
| The sources told Al-Masry Al-Youm that "a convoy of official vehicles was seen heading to the airport in Damascus", before they were intercepted by brigades of army defectors. | |
| According to the source, there was a heavy exchange of fire, which prevented the family's escape, who then returned to the presidential palace. | |
| We cannot confirm this report. | |
| Mrs Assad has been criticised by many for staying silent during the bloodshed in Syria, while Vogue magazine was also condemned for a gushing profile of her - later taken down - entitled "A Rose in the Desert", which praised the Assads as "wildly democratic". | |
| She made a rare public appearance with her children at a rally in Damascus earlier this month (above left). But in today's Times, Martin Fletcher says her views on what is happening in the country remain a mystery (paywall). | |
| A Saudi newspaper recently claimed that she had intervened to help some employees of one of her charities who were arrested for joining an anti-government demonstration. In September she reportedly summoned some aid workers to find out what was really happening in Homs, although she apparently remained expressionless when they told her. A family friend told a Syrian source based in London that she "wasn't sleeping at night because she's so worried". | |
| Of course, it is possible that living in relatively peaceful Damascus and being surrounded by regime stalwarts, Mrs Assad really believes the regime's propaganda about the opposition being a bunch of armed terrorists. It is possible that she is in denial, especially as she appears to be devoted to her husband and may well believe that he alone can hold his disparate country together. But neither scenario seems likely. "She's too clever — too smart — for that," the Arab commentator says. "She knows everything. She's fully aware," says her former Syrian colleague, who insists that she has full access to the internet and western media. "She's highly intelligent and worldly wise. I find it very difficult to imagine she shares the view that this is a conspiracy of saboteurs and al-Qaida," says a friend of her father's. | |
| Everyone agrees, however, that if she is appalled by the crackdown there is little she can do except plead with her husband in the privacy of their home. | |
| 9.58am: In the Financial Times, Roula Khalaf writes that Saudi Arabia is becoming an increasingly significant player in the international community's response to events in Syria: | |
| By withdrawing Saudi members from the team of Arab monitors, a decision that was quickly followed by other Gulf states, and by calling for "all possible pressure" on Damascus and holding a meeting in Cairo with the Syrian opposition, the prince dealt a blow to a mission he deemed a failure and injected momentum into stalled diplomacy ... | |
| Saudi Arabia has now given fresh ammunition to western allies at the UN security council to push back against Russia, which has so far blocked action. The Arab League is asking the security council to adopt a peace plan that calls on Mr Assad to give powers to a vice-president and form a national unity government ... | |
| "The substance of what is being offered and the fact that it is the Gulf countries, particularly Saudi Arabia, that are doing the engagement gives a window of opportunity to turn the Russians around," says Salman Sheikh, analyst at the Brookings Doha Centre. | "The substance of what is being offered and the fact that it is the Gulf countries, particularly Saudi Arabia, that are doing the engagement gives a window of opportunity to turn the Russians around," says Salman Sheikh, analyst at the Brookings Doha Centre. |
| 9.50am: The Syrian state news agency, Sana, reports that "an armed terrorist group" has attacked a gas-pipeline running from Homs to Banias, near the border with Lebanon. | 9.50am: The Syrian state news agency, Sana, reports that "an armed terrorist group" has attacked a gas-pipeline running from Homs to Banias, near the border with Lebanon. |
| There have been a number of attacks on pipelines since the Syrian uprising began in mid-March with the government consistently blaming armed terrorist groups. The Assad regime says such groups are behind the violence that has engulfed the country since protests began. | There have been a number of attacks on pipelines since the Syrian uprising began in mid-March with the government consistently blaming armed terrorist groups. The Assad regime says such groups are behind the violence that has engulfed the country since protests began. |
| Sana also claims that an armed terrorist group killed a doctor in Homs "in the framework of targeting the Syrian medical, technical, and technological expertise". | |
| Update 10.07am: The Local Co-ordination Committees claim that the doctor, Mostafa Safr, was killed by the Assad regime because he "contributed in the treatment of the wounded in the revolution". | |
| 9.34am: The US-based Syrian exile Ammar Abdulhamid has blogged that attacks on the apparatus of the Assad regime "will become part of daily life in Damascus and its suburbs": | |
| Some reports claim that a major attack on the General Headquarters of Air Force Security near Damascus' own Tahrir Square in Central Damascus did take place. Others speak of an attack on the local police station of Naher Eisheh in Old Damascus. There have also been reports of clashes between loyalists and rebels in Rabweh Region to the northwest of Damascus. Security forces did open fire on protesters in Jobar neighbourhood in the eastern parts of Damascus. The neighbourhood is practically an in-city extension of Eastern Ghoutah Region. | |
| Still Assad loyalist troops have managed [to re-establish] their presence in various communities in Eastern Ghoutah and Qalamoun, but this is far from re-establishing control. Rebels simply don't have enough arms and ammunition for direct head-on combat at this stage. Mounting guerilla warfare, on the other hand, is a different matter. Indeed, and for the foreseeable future, attacks on loyalist troops and security headquarters, checkpoints and convoys will become part of daily life in Damascus and its suburbs in tandem with loyalist crackdown, killings and detentions. | |
| Activists have posted video footage purporting to be of the assault on the Damascus suburbs on Sunday. | Activists have posted video footage purporting to be of the assault on the Damascus suburbs on Sunday. |
| This video of troops walking alongside a tank was reportedly filmed as they entered Ain Terma. | This video of troops walking alongside a tank was reportedly filmed as they entered Ain Terma. |
| This purports to show shelling of Irbeen. | |
| The New York Times has a picture gallery of Rankous, 20 miles north of Damascus, near the Lebanese border, which has been under siege from government troops since Wednesday, according to activists. | The New York Times has a picture gallery of Rankous, 20 miles north of Damascus, near the Lebanese border, which has been under siege from government troops since Wednesday, according to activists. |
| 9.22am: The Local Co-ordination Committees, which report on protests in Syria, say there has been renewed shelling in the Damascus suburbs today. | 9.22am: The Local Co-ordination Committees, which report on protests in Syria, say there has been renewed shelling in the Damascus suburbs today. |
| They report explosions in Maleiha and Saqba. The LCCs also say Rankous, 20 miles north of Damascus, which has been under tank fire since Wednesday according to activists, has suffered renewed shelling with several homes destroyed. | They report explosions in Maleiha and Saqba. The LCCs also say Rankous, 20 miles north of Damascus, which has been under tank fire since Wednesday according to activists, has suffered renewed shelling with several homes destroyed. |
| The reports can not be independently verified. | The reports can not be independently verified. |
| 8.47am: Welcome to Middle East Live. It was a bloody weekend in Syria. Here's a summary of the main developments. | 8.47am: Welcome to Middle East Live. It was a bloody weekend in Syria. Here's a summary of the main developments. |
| • Troops seized back eastern suburbs of Damascus from rebels late on Sunday after an unprecedented operation that saw around 2,000 troops and at least 50 tanks and armoured vehicles flood the area, according to activists. An activist named Kamal, in the eastern al-Ghouta area on the edge of the capital, told Reuters: | |
| The Free Syrian Army has made a tactical withdrawal. Regime forces have re-occupied the suburbs and started making house-to-house arrests. | The Free Syrian Army has made a tactical withdrawal. Regime forces have re-occupied the suburbs and started making house-to-house arrests. |
| Maher al-Naimi, a spokesman for the Free Syrian Army of defectors fighting Assad's forces, appeared to confirm that account: | Maher al-Naimi, a spokesman for the Free Syrian Army of defectors fighting Assad's forces, appeared to confirm that account: |
| Tanks have gone in but they do not know where the Free Syrian Army is. We are still operating close to Damascus. | Tanks have gone in but they do not know where the Free Syrian Army is. We are still operating close to Damascus. |
| The Guardian's Luke Harding writes: | The Guardian's Luke Harding writes: |
| The unprecedented operation appears an attempt to regain the initiative from the rebels, who have grown increasingly bold in recent weeks. The BBC's Middle East correspondent, Jeremy Bowen, discovered the FSA openly manning roadblocks in Damascus last week, just 30 minutes away from Bashar Al-Assad's presidential palace. | The unprecedented operation appears an attempt to regain the initiative from the rebels, who have grown increasingly bold in recent weeks. The BBC's Middle East correspondent, Jeremy Bowen, discovered the FSA openly manning roadblocks in Damascus last week, just 30 minutes away from Bashar Al-Assad's presidential palace. |
| The insurgency, which is still raging in towns and cities across Syria - with further protests in Aleppo on Sunday — has now definitively reached the capital. | The insurgency, which is still raging in towns and cities across Syria - with further protests in Aleppo on Sunday — has now definitively reached the capital. |
| The Washington Post says the regime "is looking weaker than at any point during the past 10 months", according to analysts, in an article written before the army reportedly seized back the Damascus suburbs: | |
| Assad still holds the loyalties of the security forces, particularly the officer corps drawn mostly from his own Alawite sect. Diplomats in Damascus suspect, however, that defections among the rank and file are accelerating faster than had previously been thought, as soldiers deployed without leave on low pay for nearly a year find themselves drawn to the revolt. | Assad still holds the loyalties of the security forces, particularly the officer corps drawn mostly from his own Alawite sect. Diplomats in Damascus suspect, however, that defections among the rank and file are accelerating faster than had previously been thought, as soldiers deployed without leave on low pay for nearly a year find themselves drawn to the revolt. |
| A ceasefire agreement under which security forces were forced to withdraw from the town of Zabadani, 20 miles west of Damascus, leaving it in the hands of the Free Syrian Army, came about in large part because the government feared soldiers would defect in large numbers if they were forced to keep attacking the city, according to activists in the town and diplomats. | |
| "In Syria, looking weak is a dangerous thing, and if they can't control the Damascus suburbs, they do look weak," said a western diplomat. | |
| • Activists said that more than 60 people were killed on Sunday, many of them in the Damascus suburbs. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said at least 27 civilians were killed Sunday, most of them in fighting in the Damascus suburbs and in the central city of Homs, a hotbed of anti-regime protests. Twenty-six soldiers and nine defectors were also killed, it said. The soldiers were killed in ambushes that targeted military vehicles near the capital and in the northern province of Idlib. The Local Co-ordination Committees (LCCs) said 64 people were killed nationwide, including 16 in the Damascus suburbs (it does not include army deaths). Saturday was even bloodier, according to the LCCs, which reported 98 deaths. | |
| • The increase in violence came after the Arab League suspended its widely-criticised monitoring mission on Saturday, citing the "critical deterioration of the situation in Syria and the continued use of violence". The League's chief, Nabil Elaraby, flew to New York on Sunday to try to win support on the UN security council for his peace plan, designed to end the violence through political means. Syria has categorically rejected the Arab League's plan as "foreign interference". A draft resolution echoing the Arab League plan - which would see Assad step down in favour of his vice-president and allow free and fair elections - could be put to the vote in New York this week, but there were indications that Russia, Syria's closest strategic ally and key military supplier, would block it. | |
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