Syrian journalist killed

Government, rebels trade fire near Damascus

DAMASCUS, Syria — A Syrian journalist was killed Tuesday in a suburb of the capital, Damascus, during intense clashes and shelling between government troops and rebel fighters as diplomatic efforts to end the country’s civil war continued to falter.

Batoul Mokhles al- Warar, a broadcaster at Noor al- Sham TV channel and Damascus radio station, was killed by mortar rounds fired by “terrorists,” the SANA news agency said. The Britain- based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the journalist was killed in shelling of the government- held Dahiyat al- Assad neighborhood, which has been frequently targeted by rebel attacks.

The activist group said government troops shelled the rebel- held Damascus suburbs of Douma and Daraya. There were reports of clashes and casualties on the outskirts of both suburbs.

Violence in Damascus suburbs where rebels have been entrenched for years has claimed the lives of thousands of civilians.

Overall violence in Syria has surged since Russia, a top ally of Syrian President Bashar Assad, began airstrikes around the country on Sept. 30. Moscow says it is targeting militant groups, but civilians and Westernbacked rebel groups also have come under attack.

Russian news agencies quoted Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov as saying Tuesday that Moscow aimed to host talks between Syrian officials and opposition leaders next week. He said the Syrian government had agreed to participate, but it was unclear which opposition groups would attend.

He did not give a specific date for the proposed talks. They were expected to be discussed today at a meeting between Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and U. N. Syrian envoy Staffan de Mistura, Bogdanov said.

Ahmed Ramadan, a senior member of the Syrian National Coalition, said the opposition group has not received an invitation to Moscow and would not accept such a meeting anyway.

“The coalition believes that Moscow is not an appropriate place to hold any meetings related to reviving the political process in Syria,” he said, adding that the process needs an “unbiased mediator” while “Russia is a partner in the aggression on the Syrian people.”

Russia earlier this year hosted two meetings with government representatives and members of the political opposition, which did not include the Syrian National Coalition, the main Western- backed political opposition group.

A Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman said Tuesday that Moscow does not consider it a matter of principle that Assad should stay in power.

Asked whether it was crucial for Moscow that Assad stays, Maria Zakharova said on the Ekho Moskvy radio station: “Absolutely not, we’ve never said that.”

“What we did say is a regime change in Syria could become a local or even regional catastrophe,” she said, adding that “only the Syrian people can decide the president’s fate.”

Russia has previously balked at the West’s suggestions that the Syrian president should be ousted.

However, Syria’s Deputy Foreign Minister Faysal Mekdad said during a visit Tuesday to Tehran that there was nothing “official” about a meeting between the Syrian opposition and the government and rejected any discussion about a political transition in Syria.

“There is no transitional period in Syria. It only exists in the mind of those who are far from reality,” he said, according to the semiofficial Tasnim news agency.

International talks to pursue a new peace effort involving Syria’s Iranian- backed government and opposition groups were held in Vienna last week. The negotiations left open the question of when Assad might leave power, and it was unclear whether he or disparate rebel groups fighting to topple him would sign on to any peace proposal.

A new round of talks is expected to take place within two weeks.

Emboldened by the Russian air campaign, Syrian government troops, backed by an increasing number of Lebanese Hezbollah and Iranian fighters, have been on the offensive on several fronts in an attempt to secure supply routes and regain control of strategic areas. Iran is another strong ally of Assad.

On Tuesday, Iran’s semiofficial Fars news agency said an officer with the elite Revolutionary Guard force had been killed in Syria. Seven Revolutionary Guard commanders were killed in Syria in October, Fars said.

Information for this article was contributed by Nasser Karimi, James Heintz, Sarah El Deeb and staff members of The Associated Press.