• UN
security council votes today on sanctions
• Assad's
wife Asma believed to be in Russia
guardian.co.uk,
Ian Black, Martin Chulov and agencies, Thursday 19 July 2012
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| Damascus streets have seen open clashes between Free Syrian Army soldiers and government forces. Photograph: Ugarit News/AP |
Syria's
uprising has entered uncharted territory after rebels fighting the regime of
Bashar al-Assad killed three of his top security chiefs in a devastating bomb
attack in the heart of Damascus on Wednesday – the single worst loss for the
government in 16 months of increasingly bloody struggle.
Mass
defections of soldiers and a rampage by pro-regime militiamen were reported in
the capital amid a swirl of rumours, including one that Assad's wife, Asma, had
fled to Russia and another that troops were being issued with gas masks,
raising fears of the use of chemical weapons.
The
president's whereabouts was also unclear, with one unconfirmed report that he
had been wounded and left Damascus for Latakia on the coast.
The White
House spokesman, Jay Carney, said it was "clear that Assad is losing
control".
He told
reporters: "All of our partners internationally need to come together to
support a transition."
The UN
security council is due to vote on western-backed resolution at 2pm BST on Thursday
that threatens sanctions against the Assad government if it fails to withdraw
troops and heavy weapons from populated areas.
The
resolution is being tabled under chapter seven of the UN Charter, which could
ultimately authorise force. Russia has said it will veto any chapter seven
resolution. The US and Russian UN ambassadors met on Wednesday without reaching
agreement.
David
Cameron, meeting British troops in Afghanistan, said it was time for Assad to
go and called on China and Russia to support the resolution.
Reports
from Damascus on Wednesday described loud explosions, gunfire in the streets,
attack helicopters firing and clouds of smoke over residential areas.
Earlier,
Syrian state TV confirmed the deaths of Assef Shawkat, Assad's brother-in-law
and the deputy head of the armed forces, and his closest security adviser, as
well as Dawoud Rajha, the minister of defence and the regime's most senior
Christian figure. Hassan Turkmani, his crisis management chief, was also
killed.
Other
leading figures, including the interior minister, Mohammad Shaar, and the
intelligence chief, Hisham Bekhtyar, were wounded and being treated in the
capital's al-Shami hospital. Uncertainty about the precise circumstances of the
attack immediately gave rise to feverish speculation about possible internecine
killings which the regime could blame on its enemies.
Explosions
were also reported from the headquarters of the army's 4th Division in Damascus
– the regime's elite unit commanded by Assad's brother, Maher.
Sergei
Lavrov, Russia's foreign minister, said a "decisive battle" had begun
in Syria. Lavrov also made it clear that Moscow would oppose a draft UN
security council resolution threatening punishment if Assad did not implement
the UN-backed peace plan promoted by Kofi Annan.
In Syria,
the Local Co-ordination Committees, an activist network, said 102 people had
been killed in fighting across the country.
The morning
attack on the headquarters of Syria's national security council in the al-Rawda
area was the most audacious yet by anti-Assad rebels, who have been fighting
sporadically in parts of the capital for the past four days. Syrian television
said it was a suicide attack, and it was rumoured that the suspected killer may
have been a bodyguard for Rajha or another member of Assad's inner circle. One
pro-regime source in Damascus told the Guardian it was possible a bomb could
have been planted on the premises.
The attack
certainly appeared to be a deadly blow to the heart of the regime after two
recent high-level defections – by a senior Republican Guard commander and
Syria's ambassador to Iraq.
Syrian
state television said foreign-backed "terrorists" had carried out the
attack. The country's armed forces said in a statement that Syria was "determined
to confront all forms of terrorism and chop off any hand that harms national
security".
"The
opposition has hit the jackpot," said Nadim Shehadi, a Middle East analyst
at Chatham House in London. "The consequences are too big to digest. It
may provoke more violence by the regime. Everyone is revising their
calculations.
"People
will be deciding whether to defect or not and the Russians will be wondering if
they have backed the wrong horse," he said.
The attack
was claimed by the Free Syrian Army, the main armed opposition group. "God
willing, this is the beginning of the end of the regime," its commander,
Riad al-Asaad, told AP in a telephone interview from Turkey. "Hopefully,
Bashar will be next." An Islamist group called Liwa al-Islam also claimed
responsibility.
Syrian
state television, which was uncharacteristically quick to report the news, also
said the military would call up its reserve forces on Thursday morning.
Replacements for the three dead men were quickly announced.
General
Fahd Jassem al-Freij, Rajha's replacement, denied reports on Arab satellite
television channels about military defections in Idlib and Damascus and
explosions at 4th Division HQ.
Rumours
spread wildly in the hours after the incident, though much information was
impossible to verify. According to one pro-government source, FSA rebels began
moving around in pick-up trucks to demonstrate that they controlled parts of
the city. Ba'ath party members had been executed by FSA men, the source said.
Damascus
residents contacted by the Guardian said there had been no audible blast or
visible damage at the site. Other Syrian sources suggested – without offering
any evidence – that the three security chiefs might have been killed by the
regime to forestall a possible coup or remove potential replacements for Assad.
"Either
the generals were preparing a coup or if not there must be an intelligence
operation here," said one Syrian analyst.
There were
also widespread reports of defections in central Damascus as well as in the
cities of Homs and Hama. Activists reported that several tanks had been
abandoned near the centre of the capital and that several combat units had
defected en masse. These reports could not be confirmed.
One
activist, Omar al-Dimashki, said large numbers of troops and plainclothes
police were deployed in the streets after the bombing, with snipers taking up
positions on high buildings.
Shawkat,
married to Assad's sister Bushra, was one of the most feared figures in the
president's inner circle and had won the support of the clan's influential
matriarch, Anisa. He was one of three central figures in the regime crackdown,
along with Assad himself and his brother, Maher. As Syria's overall security
chief, he had key input into all military and intelligence operations. He is
known to have survived an attempt to poison him in late May when a cook
contaminated food that had been prepared for him and key members of the national
security ministry.
Abu Hamza,
of the Free Syrian Army, told the Guardian at the time that rebel forces were
trying to recruit aides of regime figures to carry out future attacks. "We
have had some success with this," he said. "Some have been with us
for a long time and have not yet been given orders to move."
Shawkat had
also been a key point-man with Iran and with Hezbollah. Since the uprising
started he had chaired key strategy meetings and had driven the regime's
uncompromising and aggressive military response to the escalating dissent.
Rajha, a
former general and an Orthodox Christian, was appointed defence minister last
year in an apparent attempt by the Alawite-dominated regime to appoint a
minority figure to a key job.
Prospects
for any kind of negotiations between the government and rebels, always slim,
have now all but disappeared.
Pro-regime
Syrians appeared deeply shocked. "A lot of pro-Assad people are really
panicking," said an opposition activist. "Now they sound
really nervous."
Assad supporters
admitted the attack was a serious blow. "This will not be the end of the
regime in any way," said a member of Assad's Alawite community. "But
it is serious and people are traumatised at the fact that the opposition
managed to assassinate these people. But government supporters want the
government to be firm and show it is still in control. The Syrian
government is not usually impulsive."
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Bashar
al-Assad, centre, with Hassan Turkmani, right, in 2005.
Turkmani died in the
bomb blast on 18 July along with Assef Shawkat,
Assad’s brother-in-law, and
Dawoud Rajha, defence minister.
Photograph: Sana/AP
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