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Syria clashes intensify

Cash-strapped regime seeks Russia's help; China questions West's intention

AGENCIES
Clashes have intensified overnight and after daybreak yesterday in Syria's both key cities, the capital Damascus and northern Aleppo province, in what appeared to be decisive battles between armed insurgent groups and government forces.
Rebel-held quarters of Syria's Aleppo came under heavy bombardment by regime forces, as a senior security official warned that the real battle for control of the strategic northern city was yet to come.
A hold-out rebel district of Damascus was also pounded, a day after the United Nations deplored the failure of diplomacy to end a conflict that has reportedly claimed more than 21,000 lives in nearly 17 months.
Abdel Jabar Oqaida, commander of the Free Syrian Army in Aleppo, said the district of Salaheddin had ''come under the heaviest bombardment since the battle began" on July 20 but that loyalists had "not managed to advance."
Meanwhile, cash-strapped Syria has asked Russia for financial loans and supplies of oil products, CNN said in a report.
Syria's Deputy Prime Minister Qadri Jamil, who led a delegation consisting of Syrian Cabinet ministers in a visit to Russia, on Friday told reporters in Moscow that Russia had promised to provide financial assistance to Syria.
The delegation was in talks with the Russian officials and business leaders on ways to alleviate the consequences of Western sanctions against Syria.
In what is also a war of words, a senior government security figure said "the battle for Aleppo has not yet begun, and what is happening now is j us t ill e app et izer."
"The main course will come later," he warned.
Earlier this week, a security official said troops were "testing the terrorists' defence systems before annihilating them by earning out a surgical operation."
The security official yesterday said more reinforcements had arrived and that at least 20,000 troops were already on the ground.
"The other side are also sending reinforcements," the official added, referringto the rebels, who claim to have seized half the city since they poured in two weeksago.
Echoing UN chief Ban Ki-moon's remarks on Thursday that violence was intensifying, a watchdog said July was the deadliest month since the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad's regime erupted in March 2011.
Rami Abdel Rahman who heads the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said 4,239 people, the vast majority civilians, died in July, bringing the overall toll since March 2011 to more than 21,000.
"The death toll is escalating," Abdel Rahman said, noting June had been the second-deadliest month.
And with thousands more displaced, lacking basic needs and unable to get medical treatment, die Red Gross and this month's UN Security Council president, France, highlighter humanitarian concerns.
Loud explosions shook Aleppo as fighter jets and helicopter gunships overflew the city and rebels attempted early in the day to storm the stale television building before being driven off by shelling, said the Britainbased Observatory.
The violence killed at least 60 people across Syria yesterday, including at least eight in Aleppo province, the Observatory said. The dead comprised 35 civilians, 18 soldiersand seven rebels.
On Friday, UN chief Ban warned world powers they must overcome their rivalries to put an end to a "proxy war" in Syria. And the UN General Assembly voted overwhelmingly to condemn the Security Council for its failure toact.
But Russian Ambassador Vitaly Churkin said the assembly gave "blatant" support to Syrian rebels and that its backers were the countries providing "mercenaries and arms" to the opposition.
And China's deputy ambassador, Wang Min, yesterday said pressuring only D am ascus would" cause further escalation of the turmoil and let the crisis spill over to other countries in the region."
On Friday, a senior foreign ministry official Wang Kejian accused countries that oppose its position of pursuing their own geopolitical interests and "trying to hinder or even undermine the political settlement