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Syria Criticizes France’s Support of Rebels Syria Criticizes France for Supporting Rebels, as Fears Grow of Islamist Infiltration
(about 5 hours later)
CAIRO — The Syrian government accused France of “schizophrenia” on Sunday for pledging to support a peaceful resolution to the uprising challenging President Bashar al-Assad and simultaneously aiding the armed groups driving the insurrection. At the same time, a French doctor returning from a rebel-controlled hospital raised new alarms about the presence of foreign Islamist militants in Syria. CAIRO — The Syrian government accused France of “schizophrenia” on Sunday for pledging to support a peaceful resolution to the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad and simultaneously aiding the armed groups driving the insurrection. At the same time, a French doctor returning from a rebel-controlled hospital raised new alarms about the presence of foreign Islamist militants in Syria, stoking fears that have discouraged the West from more forceful support for the rebels.
As the fighting continued, the Syrian military closed in on the neighborhood that was once the Yarmouk refugee camp in its drive to squeeze the rebels out of the suburbs south of the capital, Damascus. The government’s forces blasted opposition strongholds with tanks, artillery and helicopter gunships. In a government-controlled neighborhood in Aleppo, Syria’s largest city, rebels set off a bomb that state news media said killed 17 people and wounded more than 40.
Days after the French government said that it would provide humanitarian and reconstruction assistance directly to the rebels controlling five Syrian cities, a spokesman for the Syrian government accused France of undermining the first trip to the region by the new United Nations envoy charged with negotiating a peace, Lakhdar Brahimi.Days after the French government said that it would provide humanitarian and reconstruction assistance directly to the rebels controlling five Syrian cities, a spokesman for the Syrian government accused France of undermining the first trip to the region by the new United Nations envoy charged with negotiating a peace, Lakhdar Brahimi.
“On the one hand, it supports Brahimi’s mission, while at the same time it makes statements demonstrating that it supports the militarization of the crisis in Syria,” the Syrian spokesman, Jihad Makdessi, said of the French government in an interview with The Associated Press. “The only way to make Brahimi’s mission a success is the cooperation of all parties to enable him to bring about calmness and then the political process.” “On the one hand, it supports Brahimi’s mission, while at the same time it makes statements demonstrating that it supports the militarization of the crisis in Syria,” the spokesman, Jihad Makdissi, said of the French government in an interview with The Associated Press. “The only way to make Brahimi’s mission a success is the cooperation of all parties.”
Western leaders and the Syrian rebels say the Assad government expressed similar support for peace proposals made by the previous envoy, Kofi Annan, but in fact failed to curb its military campaign to wipe out the opposition. Mr. Annan, the former general secretary of the United Nations, quit in frustration. And the Assad government has since ruled out any talks with the rebels, dismissing them as foreign agents. The Assad government expressed similar support for peace proposals made by the previous envoy, Kofi Annan, but failed to curb its military campaign to wipe out the opposition. Mr. Annan, the former secretary general of the United Nations, quit in frustration. And the Assad government has since ruled out any talks with the rebels, dismissing them as foreign agents.
In Paris, a French doctor who just returned from a two-week medical mission to a rebel-controlled hospital in the battleground of Aleppo said he was surprised by the number of militants from outside Syria who had joined the fight in the goal of establishing an Islamist government — one of the concerns that has deterred Western nations from supplying more aid to the armed opposition. In Paris, a French doctor who just returned from a two-week medical mission at a rebel-controlled hospital in Aleppo said he was surprised by the number of militants from outside of Syria who had joined the fight with the goal of establishing an Islamist government.
The doctor, Jacques Bérès, 71, a surgeon who is known for missions to war zones and who is a co-founder of the humanitarian group Doctors Without Borders, said in an interview with Reuters that he had treated about 40 patients a day, and that 60 percent were rebel fighters, half of whom were from outside Syria. The doctor, Jacques Bérès, 71, a surgeon who is known for missions to war zones and who helped found the humanitarian group Doctors Without Borders, said in an interview with Reuters that he had treated about 40 patients a day, and that 60 percent were rebel fighters, half of whom were from outside Syria.
“It’s really something strange to see,” he said, according to Reuters. “They are directly saying that they aren’t interested in Bashar al-Assad’s fall, but are thinking about how to take power afterward and set up an Islamic state with Shariah law to become part of the world emirate.”“It’s really something strange to see,” he said, according to Reuters. “They are directly saying that they aren’t interested in Bashar al-Assad’s fall, but are thinking about how to take power afterward and set up an Islamic state with Shariah law to become part of the world emirate.”
“Some of them were French and were completely fanatical about the future,” he added, according to Reuters.“Some of them were French and were completely fanatical about the future,” he added, according to Reuters.
Dr. Bérès said the high proportion of foreign Islamist fighters was in sharp contrast to his impressions on trips this spring to makeshift clinics in the cities of Idlib and Homs. Dr. Bérès called the high proportion of foreign Islamist fighters in Aleppo a sharp contrast to his impressions on trips this spring to makeshift clinics in the cities of Idlib and Homs.
Activists and rebel fighters interviewed over the Internet consistently describe far lower numbers of foreign fighters and Islamist militants among the opposition, and the few reported interviews with Islamists have provided little agreement on what kind of Islamist government they envision— whether along the lines of Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Iran or the emerging government in Egypt. Activists and rebel fighters who have been interviewed over the Internet consistently describe far lower numbers of foreign fighters and Islamist militants, and the few reported interviews with Islamists have provided little agreement on what kind of government they envision— whether along the lines of Turkey, Saudi Arabia or Iran, for example.
A blogger reportedly based in Aleppo offered another assessment on Sunday, first cited by the Web site of the British newspaper The Guardian. “Yes there may be more foreign fighters in Aleppo than in other cities, but that can’t be used as an excuse to belittle the revolution, to stamp it as a jihadist enterprise as covert regime supporters do,” the blogger wrote. “It further gives no excuse to the wanton murderous destruction Assad gangs are inflicting on Syria as their barbarian regime finishes its transformation from a brutal dictatorial mafia regime into a sectarian mafia militia.” Abdulla, an 18-year-old smuggler working along the border with Lebanon, said he had helped six foreigners cross into Syria to join a cousin’s brigade in Homs and that all six — two Saudis, two Americans and a German — saw the civil war in religious terms. “They were all seeking jihad,” he said, and for one American, “the only words he knew in Arabic were ‘jihad’ and ‘greetings.’ ” (Abdulla, whose full name was withheld for his safety, said he was one of about 15 smugglers working the border.)
Dr. Bérès said that bombing by the Syrian government appeared indiscriminate and that the death toll was far higher than reports had indicated; those reports have put the number of dead in the Syrian conflict at more than 21,000. Dr. Bérès said that the bombing raids by the Syrian government appeared to be indiscriminate and that the death toll was far higher than reported. Those reports have put the number of dead in the Syrian conflict at more than 21,000.
“What people have to know is that the number of dead is a far cry from what’s been announced,” he told Reuters. “I’d say you have to multiply by two to get the real figure.”“What people have to know is that the number of dead is a far cry from what’s been announced,” he told Reuters. “I’d say you have to multiply by two to get the real figure.”
Inside Syria, air assaults, shelling and street battles continued around the country, including in Aleppo. Activists in Aleppo said Sunday that the air force had destroyed a military headquarters in the Hanano area of the city just a day after a rebel assault had taken it over. Activists distributed video that appeared to show the rubble from the building and nearby homes. The Local Coordinating Committees, an opposition group that tracks the violence, said 27 civilians and opposition fighters had been killed in Aleppo on Sunday and a total of 141 across the country.
Opposition groups said Sunday that the Syrian Air Force had destroyed a military headquarters in the Hanano area of the city just a day after a rebel assault had taken it over. Activists distributed video that appeared to show the rubble left by airstrikes that hit the complex’s central courtyard and another that appeared to show civilians searching for survivors in the wreckage of homes nearby. After the bomb went off in a government-controlled area of central Aleppo, a rebel brigade, Halab al-Shahbaa, claimed responsibility along with two other units, asserting that the military had turned two nearby hospitals into barracks. The rebels said that they had collaborated with a military defector inside a hospital to plant the bomb, which they said had killed 200 soldiers and officers.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition group based in Britain that tracks the violence, said at least four had been confirmed dead in Aleppo on Sunday; the Local Coordination Committees, a network of activists in Syria, said 25 had died. Because the government restricts journalists, such reports of casualties cannot be confirmed independently. Because the government restricts journalists, such reports cannot be confirmed independently.
Syrian activists and opposition groups, meanwhile, said that Mr. Assad’s soldiers were searching the teeming Yarmouk neighborhood of Damascus in their drive to stamp out the rebel fighters who continue to control pockets of the city and plant bombs around it. In the southern suburbs of Damascus, activists and residents said that the Syrian military had trailed residents seeking refuge in a neighborhood that grew out of the former Yarmouk refugee camp. “The killing follows us,” said a 45-year-old man of Palestinian origin who gave his name as Abu Mohammad. He had fled with his family from the nearby neighborhood of Al Hajar Al Aswad back to Yarmouk.
Founded decades ago as a refugee camp for Palestinians on the outskirts of Damascus, Yarmouk has since developed streets, shops and houses as the suburbs spread around it. Those working-class neighborhoods have become bastions of the armed opposition, and in recent days they have come under heavy shelling, and Syrian military forces have searched them for rebels. The fighters and the residents who support them, in turn, have often headed for Yarmouk to hide, and it, too, has become a target of shelling by the Assad forces, activists said. “It all becomes relative after all,” Abu Salam, an activist from the Al Tadamon neighborhood who is now hiding in Yarmouk, said in a Skype interview, explaining his decision to take shelter in an area where shells were still falling. “Everyone in Syria is trying to escape someplace,” he added.
Interviewed by Skype, residents on Sunday described clouds of smoke rising from homes and of factories burning in the adjacent neighborhood of Al Hajar al Aswad, a bastion of the rebellion that is now all but deserted. Most of the roughly 500,000 Palestinians in Syria initially sought to stay out of the conflict, and a Palestinian militia based in Yarmouk has stayed loyal to Mr. Assad. But some Palestinians said Sunday that the government attacks were pushing them closer to the rebels.
“I think there is not one single area in Damascus that can’t see the smoke, because I’ve been receiving phone calls from people in different places asking me what’s behind it,” said a resident of the Al Tadamon neighborhood who gave his name only as Abu Salam for his own safety. “I advise the Assad regime not to lose the half-million Palestinian refugees in Syria,” said a 50-year-old Palestinian who gave his name as Abu Amjad, noting that he and thousands of others had combat experience in Lebanon’s civil war. “We are old fighters.”
“We’ve been bidding our martyrs and our family and our relatives and friends farewell every single day as the regime has intensified its military campaign five days ago,” he said. “The residents had to leave and look for safer places.” Still, Khalid, 28, a fighter near Yarmouk, insisted that despite the shelling, the rebels still controlled the streets and operated underground in Damascus.
“I don’t want anything,” he said, holding his Kalashnikov rifle. “I just want to see Bashar dead with his family, who killed thousands of our people.”

Hala Droubi contributed reporting from Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

Hala Droubi contributed reporting from Dubai, United Arab Emirates.