Syria pounds Deraa city with anti-aircraft fire

AMMAN: Heavily armed forces loyal to President Bashar al-assad pounded the southern city of Deraa with anti-aircraft fire yesterday, reasserting control over rebel strongholds a year after the start of the Syrian revolt.

On the diplomatic front, the Un-arab League envoy Kofi Annan was considering Damascus’s response to “concrete proposals” that he put forward aimed at ending the violence.

“The envoy has received a reply from President al-assad. He will have more to say later today,” his spokesman Ahmad Fawzi said.

The former UN secretarygeneral held talks with al-assad in Damascus at the weekend. Despite his visit, the fighting has raged unabated, with Syr- ian forces seizing the initiative from lightly armed rebels.

Following a pattern seen in recent weeks in the Baba Amr district of Homs, in central Syria, the army has taken control of the northern city of Idlib, striking first with heavy gunfire before launching house-to-house raids, activists said. Dozens were reported to have died.

In the al-balad district of Deraa, the city where the revolution broke out in earnest a year ago, around 20 tanks and armoured vehicles raked buildings with machine-gunfire, activist Rami Abdelhaq said.

Reports from Syria cannot be independently verified as the authorities deny access to rights groups and journalists. – Reuters