Fierce clashes erupt inside historic mosque in Aleppo
Opposition mulls 5 candidates for prime minister
BEIRUT, Feb 26, (Agencies): Fierce clashes raged on Tuesday inside the historic Umayyad Mosque in Syria’s second city Aleppo, as rebels battled troops at a police academy elsewhere in the province, a watchdog said.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said rebels had pushed into the regime-held mosque from their positions at the southern entrance, and were also fighting troops in the UNESCO-listed Old City.
A military source earlier reported heavy fighting and said rebels had detonated an explosive near the southern outer wall of the mosque to break into the courtyard.
In October, the mosque was heavily damaged when a fire broke out amid clashes and charred several antique furnishings and one of its intricately sculpted colonnades.
Elsewhere in Aleppo province, rebels pushed into the grounds of a major police academy and seized one of its buildings after a fierce two-day siege in which more than 70 combatants were killed, the Observatory said.
The academy, located near the town of Khan Assal, is one of the last regime bastions in the province.
A second military source said rebels were blockading the entrance of the school and clashes were continuing on the periphery.
“We called for reinforcements yesterday and they have still not arrived,” he told AFP on condition of anonymity.
Regime forces retaliated with air strikes on rebels around the school and reinforcements were seen heading towards Khan Assal, according to the watchdog, which collects its reports from a network of activists and medics on the ground.
At least five candidates are vying to become “prime minister” of a government Syria’s opposition plans to create to administer rebel-held territory, a member of the Syrian National Council said on Tuesday.
The SNC, the main bloc within the opposition National Coalition, decided on Monday to present three names for the post, member Samir Nashar told AFP.
They are former SNC head Burhan Ghalioun and members Salim al-Moslet and Osama Kadi.
Defected
“Other names from outside the SNC are being circulated,” including former Syrian premier Riad Hijab, who defected last summer, and Khaled Mustafa, Nashar said.
The premier will be elected in a secret ballot by the 64 general assembly members of the Syrian National Coalition on March 2.
Saudi Arabia has been supplying Syrian rebels battling the regime of President Bashar al-Assad with arms bought from Croatia, according to The New York Times.
Citing unnamed US and Western officials, the newspaper reported late Monday that the Saudi-financed “large purchase of infantry weapons” was part of an “undeclared surplus” of arms left over from the Balkan wars in the 1990s and that they began reaching anti-regime fighters via Jordan in December.
That was when many Yugoslav weapons started showing up in YouTube videos posted by rebels, it said.
A member of the UN peacekeeping force charged with monitoring the ceasefire between Israeli and Syrian troops on the Golan Heights is missing, the United Nations said Monday.
UN deputy spokesman Eduardo del Buey would not say whether the missing person was a military or civilian member of the international or local staff.
“We can confirm that a staff member is not accounted for and we are in touch with the relevant parties to determine what has happened,” del Buey said. “We have no further comment at this time.”