Bashar Assad tells Syrian forces to step up attacks against rebels - Detroit Free Press

BEIRUT -- Syrian President Bashar Assad urged his armed forces Wednesday to step up the fight against rebels as the United Nations reported a significant escalation in the civil war with the military using warplanes to fire on opposition fighters in the battle for Aleppo.

Sausan Ghosheh, the spokeswoman for the UN mission in Syria, said that international observers had witnessed warplanes firing in Syria's largest city, where intense fighting has been raging for 12 days. She said the situation in Aleppo was dire, with "heavy use of heavy weapons" including tanks, which the rebels now possess as well.

Aleppo has been wracked by violence since rebels attempted to take it over and succeeded in holding several neighborhoods despite daily assaults by regime tanks, helicopters and warplanes.

The UN's World Food Program said it was sending enough emergency food aid for 28,000 people in the city of 3 million. The UN has estimated that some 200,000 residents have fled Aleppo.

Also Wednesday, a Ukrainian military plane evacuated from Aleppo dozens of Ukrainians and Polish women with their children and in some cases Syrian husbands.

On the 67th anniversary of the Syrian army's founding, Assad pushed his armed forces to redouble their efforts in the fight in a speech that was not televised and appeared only in the army's magazine and the government-run news agency.

"Today, you are invited to increase your readiness and willingness for the armed forces to be the shield, wall and fortress of our nation," he said.

Assad has not spoken in public since a July 18 bombing killed four of his top security officials during a rebel assault on Damascus. He has appeared on TV only once. His whereabouts are unknown, and it is not even clear whether he is in the capital.

Minor clashes with the rebels around Damascus continue, and early Wednesday, residents of the Christian neighborhood of Bab Touma in the old city of Damascus reported a half-hour gun battle.

There also was fighting Wednesday in several other cities, including central Homs.

Also Wednesday, Arab countries pushed ahead with a symbolic UN General Assembly resolution that tells Assad to resign and turn over power to a transitional government. It also demands that the Syrian army stop its shelling and helicopter attacks and withdraw to its barracks. A vote is set for Friday morning.

Although the 193-member General Assembly has no legal mechanism for enforcing a resolution, an overwhelming vote can carry moral and symbolic power. Voting is by simple majority, and there is no veto.