Syrian army ups attacks on rebels as Turkey scrambles F-16

PanARMENIAN.Net - The Syrian army pressed its offensive against rebels, bombarding the city of Douma near Damascus, and Turkey said it had scrambled warplanes after Syrian helicopters flew near its border, Reuters said.

Turkey's armed forces command said the fighters took off on Monday, July 2 when Syrian transport helicopters were spotted flying near the frontier, without entering Turkish air space. It was the third day in a row that Turkey had scrambled its F-16s.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad told a Turkish daily he wished his forces had not shot down a Turkish jet last month and that he would not allow tensions with Turkey to lead to war.

A Syrian general and 84 soldiers were the latest to defect and flee to Turkey on Monday. But army and government defections have so far failed to shake Assad's 12-year grip on power.

Assad told Cumhuriyet he was not bent on staying in office come what may but gave no hint he was ready to quit.

More violence erupted on Tuesday with the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a group which compiles reports from rebels, saying 56 people were killed across the country, including 34 civilians.

Opposition leaders say more than 15,000 people have been killed since the uprising began in March 2011.

Neither Assad nor his enemies have shown much interest in compromise as Syria slides deeper into a civil war, fuelling animosity between majority Sunni Muslims and the president's minority Alawites who control the military and security forces.