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Annan bows out amid raging violence

Rebels bombard airbase in Aleppo as regime forces kill dozens in Damascus raids

Agencies
International envoy Kofi Annan is stepping down, UN chief Ban Ki-moon announced yesterday "with deep regret," as his April peace plan for Syria in tatters in the face of raging violence.
Rebels shelled an air base used by regime forces to pound the northern city of Aleppo.
And in Damascus, government forces launched two operations to root out rebel activists on Wednesday, killing al least 70, the opposition has said.
Troops reportedly went from house to house demanding to see people's papers. Activists say the soldiers summarily executed many of their victims.
Syrian state TV said "dozens of terrorists" surrendered or were killed in the operation.
The UN chief paid tribute to Annan for his efforts in the "most difficult" assignment of ending the bloodshed that human rights monitors say has claimed more than 20,000 lives in Syria since an uprising against President Bashar al-Assad's rule erupted in March last year.
But he said the former UN chief would now step down at the end of the month and the search had begun for a successor.
"I wish to express my deepest gratitude to Mr Annan for the determined and courageous efforts he has made as the Joint Special Envoy for Syria," Ban said.
"Kofi Annan deserves our profound
admiration for the selfless way in which he has put his formidable skills and prestige to this most difficult and potentially thankless of assignments," he added.
The UN and Arab League named Annan as its envoy on the Syria conflict on February 23 and he brokered a six-point peace plan that was supposed to begin with a ceasefire from April 12.
But the truce never took hold and the United Nations has begun winding down an observer mission that was supposed to oversee it ahead of the expiry of its mandate later this month.
Ban's announcement came as rebel forces shelled the Menagh air base, 30 kilometres northwest of Aleppo, as the battle for Syria’s commercial capital intensified.
An AFP reporter who witnessed the bombardment said the rebels told him it was "an attack to take this airport being used by helicopters and planes that are firing on Aleppo."
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for I luman Rights said a tank the rebels had captured from the army was used in the morning shelling.
Mobile phone and Internet services, cut since Wednesday night, were being gradually restored in Aleppo by yesterday afternoon.
Thursday’s air base assault came after US President Barack Obama was reported to have signed a covert document authorising US support for the rebels.
The directive was contained in a "finding"
Kofi Annan
- a device authorising clandestine action by die Central Intelligence Agency, NBC and CNN said, citing unidentified sources.
Nationwide, al least 51 people were killed yesterday — 30 civilians, 11 soldiers and 10 rebels, said the Observatory, which has estimated that more than 20,000 people have died since mid-March last year. Meanwhile, Russian PresidentVladimir Putin and British premier David Cameron failed to hide their differences on the Syrian crisis before the two leaders watched the Olympic judo together on Putin's first visit to Britain for seven years.
Britain has strongly criticised Russia's repeated blocking of any threat of UN sanctions against the Assad regime. Moscow has accused Western governments of bias towards the rebels.
The UN General Assembly will vote on a largely symbolic Arab-drafted resolution today calling on Assad to stand down.
Three million of Syria's 22 million people need food, crops and livestock assistance, the UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation said, citing a survey by the United Nations and the Syrian government.
The FAO said figure included 1.5 million Syrians who "need urgent and immediate food assistance over the next three to six months, especially in areas that have seen the greatest conflict and population displacement."