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Rebels claim control over most of Syria

Say fall of Assad matter of time; regime intensifies airstrikes

AFP, Damascus
Regime aircraft hammered insurgent bastions nationwide yesterday as rebels said they now control most of the country and have moved their command centre from Turkey to "liberated areas" inside Syria.
With deadly violence raging across
Syria, UN-Arab League peace envoy Lakhdar Brahimi prepared to brief the UN Security Council today about talks he had with both President Bashar al-Assad and the opposition.
Brahimi discussed Syria with UN chief Ban Ki-moon on Saturday and both agreed that the 18-month crisis was "a
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steadily increasing threat to regional peace and stability," a statement said.
On the ground, at least 40 people were killed yesterday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said, as Syrian aircraft carried out strikes on rebel bastions, especially in central Homs province and Deir Ezzor in the east.
Apartment blocks in Albu Kamal, a town in oil-rich Deir Ezzor province, were targeted as rebels and soldiers battled on the ground in several districts of the town on the Iraqi border.
"The insurgents are trying to wrest control of this strategic town" said Observatory chief Rami Abdel Rahman. Losing Albu Kamal would be "a deadly blow for the regime," he added.
Troops pounded rebel-held areas in and around Damascus, in the second city Aleppo in the north, neighbouring Idlib, the central cities of Hama and Homs, and Daraa in the south.
The Britain-based group, which gathers information from a network of activists on the ground, said warplanes also raided Jebel al-Akrad in the coastal province of Latakia.
In Aleppo, rebels destroyed two fighter planes on the ground in Orm, a rebel commander told AFR while a correspondent in the city itself said fighting was less intense than past days.
Security forces also carried out raids and arrested several civilians in the southern Damascus neighbourhood of Al-Hajar Al-Aswad while antiregime protests in Salhiyeh, another district in the capital, the Observatory said.
As the fighting continued unabated, Colonel Ahmad Abdul Wahab of the Free
Syrian Army said the regime's aerial superiority was the only thing preventing the FSA from taking control of the capital.
"We control most of the country. In most regions, the soldiers are prisoners of their barracks. They go out very little and we can move freely everywhere, except Damascus," Abdul Wahab toldAFR
"With or without outside help, the fall of the regime is a question of months, not years," he said.
" If we had anti-aircraft and anti-tank missiles, we could quickly gain the advantage. But if foreign countries don't give us these, we will still win. It will take longer, that's all."
Abdul Wahab said he attends daily meetings with FSA leaders in the northern metropolis, where orders are given to him and other battalion commanders.
On Saturday, the FSA said the next step would be to "liberate" Damascus as it announced that it has moved its command base from Turkey to areas it controls inside Syria.
"The Free Syrian Army command has moved into liberated areas of Syria following arrangements made with battalions and brigades to secure these zones," FSA chief Colonel Riyadh al-Asaad said in a video posted on the Internet.
Nearly 80 percent of towns and villages along the Turkish border are outside the control of Damascus, according to the Observatory.
But Fabrice Balanche, a Syria specialist who heads the French research centre GREMMO, said the move creates a new security problem for the rebels. "They are now at the mercy of aerial attacks."