Monday, March 25, 2013

Syria rebel commander Riad al-Asaad wounded by blast

Undated video of Riad al-Asaad Col Riad al-Asaad has regularly appeared with rebel fighters on the ground in Syria

A senior rebel military commander has been seriously wounded by a bomb blast in eastern Syria, activists say.

A device exploded next to a car carrying Col Riad al-Asaad, formerly head of the Free Syrian Army (FSA), in Mayadeen, Deir al-Zour province.

An FSA spokesman told the BBC he lost a leg and was now in a Turkish hospital.

Meanwhile, Moaz al-Khatib, who resigned as head of the opposition National Coalition on Sunday, has said he plans to address a summit in Qatar this week.

In a statement on his Facebook page, Mr Khatib said that after "consulting trustworthy figures", he had "decided to make a speech in the name of the Syrian people".

Nizar al-Haraki, the coalition's envoy in Doha, said Mr Khatib would head the Syrian opposition delegation filling the seat of Syria at the Arab League meeting. Syria's membership was suspended in November 2011.

Mr Khatib complained in his resignation statement on Sunday about foreign powers, which he claimed were withholding aid from the opposition while trying to control it.

"They support whomever is ready to obey, and the one who refuses has to face starvation and siege," he said. "We will not beg to satisfy anyone, and if there is a decision to execute us as Syrians, so let it be."

His decision came five days after the coalition elected Ghassan Hitto as prime minister of an interim government, which he considered premature.
Damascus shelled
The FSA spokesman told BBC Arabic that Col Assad had been conducting a tour of the eastern town of Mayadeen on Sunday night when a bomb exploded near his car.

He was seriously injured and lost a leg, Col Aref al-Hummoud said.

Map of Syria

Col Asaad was later transferred to a hospital in Turkey for treatment and his condition was stable, the FSA spokesman added.

A relative of Col Asaad and a Turkish official also confirmed that he was being treated in Turkey and that his injuries were not believed to be life threatening.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the bombing.

Col Asaad, a former Syrian Air Force commander, defected to the opposition in July 2011 and set up the Free Syrian Army a month later in Turkey.

Under Col Asaad, the FSA functioned as an umbrella group for army defectors, civilians who had taken up arms, and Islamist militants. Fighters had only limited contact with each other or the exiled leaders.

As the armed rebellion progressed, Col Asaad was gradually superseded.

In December 2012, more than 260 leaders of the main FSA units from across Syria agreed at a meeting in Antalya to a unified command structure. They elected a 30-member Supreme Military Council (SMC), which then chose Gen Salim Idriss as the new chief of staff.

Col Asaad said he had not been invited to the meeting by the foreign powers that organised it, adding: "They want people who obey orders."

He nevertheless remained a prominent figure in the armed uprising, regularly appearing with rebel fighters on the ground in Syria.

In a separate development on Monday, rebels were reported to have shelled a high-security area within 1km (0.6 miles) of President Assad's residence in Damascus.

At least one person was killed by the mortar explosions in Umayyad Square, government-run Ikhbariya TV reported.

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