200 troops and rebels have been killed in 8-day battle for police academy in Aleppo Syrian troops targeted countryside of Latakia and besieged rebels in several neighbourhoods of Homs on Sunday, a day after 133 Syrians were killed in violent clashes across the country. Syrian warplanes bombarded East Ghouta towns on Sunday morning, as locals from the town of Daria near Damascus confirmed that a military convoy from Mezze Military Airport had arrived in Daria carrying rockets and heavy artillery.
Meanwhile, locals from the Syrian Revolution General Commission (SRGC) said that several villages in the Kurdish and Turkmen mountains, and the countryside of Latakia were exposed to explosive bombardment from helicopters and artillery rockets.
\"An attack from opposition fighters on a Syrian police academy in the town of Khan al-Assal in Aleppo, north of the country led to the killing of 34 members of the regime forces,\" reported UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. The watchdog did not mention the losses suffered by rebel fighter, although AFP reported that over 200 regime and rebel fighters were killed in the eight-day battle for control.
In Rekka province, hundreds of prisoners were liberated from the central prison in the city, including 18 detained for political reasons, as al-Nursa Front and several other rebel groups took control of the prison. Six security officers also defected to join the opposition forces.
Homs also witnessed violent clashes between the FSA and government troops, amid reports of Lebanese political party Hezbollah\'s interference in fighting alongside the regime.
In a related development, the joint command of the Free Syrian Army warned against the risks and implications of a wide-scale military campaign from Hezbollah, accusing the party of recruiting several thousand fighters in the region of Baalbek, Hermel and the border areas with Syria.
The command said that Hezbollah is preparing for a broad military incursion into the region and added that it would be considered tantamount to a declaration of an open war on armed militias of Syria and the Syrian people.
FSA called on the United Nations and Arab League States to hold an emergency session to ease the tense situation on the border with Lebanon, stressing the importance of sending Arab or international troops to maintain the security of the border between the two countries.
Meanwhile, President Bashar al-Assad insisted he will not step down and blasted Britain\'s support for armed Syrian rebels, AFP has reported.
\"We are ready to negotiate with anyone, including militants who surrender their arms,\" Assad told Britain\'s Sunday Times newspaper, in a rare interview conducted last week at his al-Muhajireen palace in Damascus.
\"We can engage in dialogue with the opposition, but we cannot engage in dialogue with terrorists,\" he said in the videotaped interview.
Syria is locked in a two-year-old conflict in which the United Nations estimates more than 70,000 have been killed. But Assad rejected the idea of standing down to end the bloodshed.
\"If this argument is correct, then my departure will stop the fighting,\" the president told The Sunday Times. \"Clearly this is absurd, and other recent precedents in Libya, Yemen and Egypt bear witness to this.\"
According to AFP, Assad turned his sights on Britain, accusing London of seeking to arm the rebels.
\"How can we expect them to make the violence less while they want to send military supplies to the terrorists and don\'t try to ease the dialogue between the Syrians?\" he asked.
British Foreign Secretary William Hague has called for changes to a European arms embargo on Syria \"so that we can provide a broader range of support to the National Coalition\", the opposition umbrella group.
Assad ruled out any mediation role for Britain, saying: \"We don\'t expect an arsonist to be a firefighter.\"
On a reported Israeli air strike near Damascus in January, Assad said his country would retaliate. \"Retaliation does not mean missile for missile or bullet for bullet. Our own way does not have to be announced,\" he said.
On Saturday, 133 Syrians, including nine children were killed in clashes across the country, with the bulk of fatalities witnessed in Damascus and Aleppo.
It was the day on which the conflict spread to Iraq, as FSA declared it had taken total control of al-Yaroubiyah border crossing with Iraq’s northern Nineveh province.
Further clashes were reported between the two sides in Yarmouk refugee camp near the Yarmouk municipality building in Palestine Street, as government forces carried out intense shelling of the area.
In Homs, there was violence in the areas of Hood Door, Jouret Shiyah, Alaqrabas and Qosor. According to the Local Coordination Committees, areas in the Homs countryside also came under attack from government forces with particular focus on Rastan and Aghannto.
In Deir el-Zor, activists said the city had suffered violent bombardment close to Sheikh Yassin neighbourhood from regime mortar and rocket launchers. The regime\'s planes also bombed the ancient town of Castle Strait in Hama.
Elsewhere, Syrian Foreign Minister, Walid Muallem, and his Iranian counterpart, Ali Akbar Salehi, held a joint press conference in which the duo agreed that only dialogue between the Syrian government and the opposition can resolve the the current crisis.
Speaking in Tehran, Salehi called on the Syrian regime to cater for the demands of its people, but he stressed the need to expel \"mercenaries\" from the country.
Muallem said that his country was facing a \"crisis involving most of the universe, but we are steadfast with the support of friendly and brotherly parties.\" He insisted that dialogue is the only way forward and said any negotiations require the cessation of all forms of violence in Syria.
He added that stopping the violence starts by \"draining sources, and pressing Turkey, Qatar and others who support, finance and arm the opposition,\" pointing out that \"terrorist groups have destroyed the infrastructure of the Syrians and caused bloodshed.\"
The foreign minister said that the economic blockade imposed on Syria is a siege on the Syrian people, expressing his surprise at the decision of the United States and the European Union to send non-lethal aid to the Syrian opposition worth $60 million dollars.
In a related development, the United Nations announced that Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, and the international envoy to Syria Lakhdar Brahimi held talks in Switzerland on Saturday, and were ready to \"facilitate dialogue\" between the regime and the opposition in Syria.
In the meantime, Moaz al-Khatib, head of Syrian National Coalition claimed that the intractable solution in Syria will only be achieved by the will of the people.
Khatib accused President Assad of trying to stir up sectarian strife and nationalism among the Syrians, stressing the need to be careful to ensure the security of civic organisations in Syria.
On the other hand, the Israeli army said that four mortar shells fired from over the Syrian border had landed in the southern Golan Heights on Saturday afternoon. The shells exploded in an uninhabited area near Ramat Magshimim and caused no damage.