At least 140 reportedly dead as Syrian army widens offensive

[indian_foxhound]

BEIRUT – Syria's army unleashed a barrage of rocket and artillery fire on rebel-held areas in a
central province Friday as part of a widening
offensive against fighters seeking to oust
President Bashar Assad. At least 140 people were
killed in fighting nationwide, according to activist
groups. The United Nations said a record number of
Syrians streamed into Jordan this month,
doubling the population of the kingdom's
already-cramped refugee camp to 65,000. Over
30,000 people arrived in Zaatari in January --
6,000 in the past two days alone, the U.N. said. The newcomers are mostly families, women,
children and elderly who fled from southern
Syria, said Melissa Fleming, spokeswoman for the
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.
She said the UNHCR was working with the
Jordanian government to open a second major camp nearby by the end of this month. Many of the new arrivals at Zaatari are from the
southern town of Daraa, where the uprising
against Assad first erupted nearly two years ago,
the Britain-based Save the Children said Friday. Five buses, crammed with "frightened and
exhausted people who fled with what little they
could carry," pull up every hour at the camp, said
Saba al-Mobasat, an aid worker with Save the
Children. The exodus reflected the latest spike in violence
in Syria's civil war. The conflict began in March
2011 after a peaceful uprising against Assad,
inspired by the Arab Spring wave of revolutions
that toppled leaders in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya and
Yemen, turned violent. Despite significant rebel advances on the
battlefield, the opposition remains outgunned by
government forces and has been unable to break
a stalemate on the ground. In Lebanon, the leader of the Syria-backed
Lebanese Hezbollah group, Sheik Hassan
Nasrallah, said Friday in a speech that those who
dream about "dramatic changes" taking place in
Syria should let go of their fantasies. "Particularly those who were expecting the fall of
Damascus," he told supporters, adding that
military, political and international developments
point to the futility of such dreams. Activists said the army recently brought in
military reinforcements to the central province of
Homs and launched a renewed offensive aimed
at retaking patches of territory that have been
held by rebels for months. An amateur video posted online by activists
showed rockets slamming into buildings in the
rebel-held town of Rastan, just north of the
provincial capital, Homs. Heavy gunfire could be
heard in the background. Another video showed thick black and gray
smoke rising from a building in the besieged city.
"The city of Homs is burning ... day and night, the
shelling of Homs doesn't stop," the narrator is
heard saying. Troops also battled rebels around Damascus in an
effort to dislodge opposition fighters who have
set up enclaves in surrounding towns and
villages. The troops fired artillery shells Friday at
several districts, including Zabadani and Daraya,
according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. Another activist group, the Local Coordination
Committees, said regime warplanes carried out
airstrikes on the suburb of Douma, the largest
patch of rebel-held ground near Damascus. The Observatory, which like the LCC relies on a
network of activists around Syria, said at least 80
people were killed in violence across the country
Friday, including 11 in Homs. Other video showed devastation in the Damascus
neighborhood of Arbeen, following what
activists said were two airstrikes there. A
bleeding, wounded man can be seen being
helped out of the rubble of the destroyed
building. The videos appeared consistent with Associated Press reporting on the fighting. Last month, the UNHCR said it needed $1 billion to
aid Syrians in the Mideast, and that half of that
money was required to help refugees in Jordan. The agency says 597,240 refugees have
registered or are awaiting registration with the
UNHCR in Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq and
Egypt. Some countries have higher estimates,
noting many Syrians have found
accommodations without registering, relying on their own resources and savings. In Turkey, U.S. officials announced that the United
States was providing an additional $10 million in
assistance to help supply flour to bakeries in the
Aleppo region. Nancy Lindborg, assistant administrator for the
U.S. Agency for International Development, said
the aid would help provide daily bread for about
210,000 people for the next five months. She said that with the new assistance, the United
States was providing a total of $220 million to
help Syrians. "Too many people -- an unconscionable number
of Syrians -- are not able to get daily bread, in
addition to other supplies," Lindborg told
journalists after a visit to a Syrian refugee camp
near Turkey's border with Syria. In a rare gesture, Syria's Interior Ministry called
on those who fled the country during the civil
war to return, including regime opponents. It
said the government will help hundreds of
thousands of citizens return whether they left
"legally or illegally." Syrian opposition figures abroad who want to
take part in reconciliation talks will also be
allowed back, according to a ministry statement
carried late Thursday by the state SANA news
agency. If they "have the desire to participate in the
national dialogue, they would be allowed to
enter Syria," it said. The proposed talks are part of Assad's initiative
to end the conflict that started as peaceful
protests in March 2011 but turned into a civil
war. Tens of thousands of activists, their family
members and opposition supporters remain
jailed by the regime, according to international activist groups. Opposition leaders repeatedly have rejected any
talks that include Assad, insisting he must step
down. The international community backs that
demand, but Assad has clung to power, vowing
to crush the armed opposition. More than 60,000 people have been killed since
the conflict began, according to the U.N. Activists also said two cars packed with
explosives blew up near a military intelligence
building in the Syrian-controlled part of the Golan
Heights, killing eight. Most of the dead were
members of the Syrian military, the Observatory
said. The Syrian government had no comment on the
attacks, which occurred Thursday night in the
town of Quneitra, and nobody claimed
responsibility for them. Car bombs and suicide attacks targeting Syrian
troops and government institutions have been
the hallmark of Islamic militants fighting in Syria
alongside rebels trying to topple Assad. Quneitra is on the cease-fire line between Syria
and Israel, which controls most of the Golan
Heights after capturing the strategic territory
from Syria in the 1967 war.