Rebels and Turkey ramp up pressure on Assad regime

Rebel forces attacked Syria’s main court in central Damascus yesterday, while Turkey deployed troops and anti-aircraft weapons to the Syrian border, building pressure on president Bashar al-Assad.

There was an explosion and a column of black smoke rose over Damascus, an Assad stronghold that until the last few days had seemed largely beyond the reach of rebels. State television described it as a terrorist blast.

Dozens of wrecked and burning cars were strewn over a car park used by lawyers and judges.

State news agency SANA said three people were wounded by the bomb hidden in a car.

The guerrilla attack in Damascus coincided with a Turkish military build-up on its border to the north and a growing sense of urgency in western and Arab-backed diplomatic efforts to forge a unity government and end 16 months of bloodshed.

Turkish military convoys moved slowly towards the Syrian frontier, reacting to Syria’s shooting down of a Turkish warplane over the Mediterranean last week. A Turkish official said they were reinforcing air defences.

Prime minister Tayyip Erdogan, speaking after last Friday’s incident, ordered his troops to treat any Syrian military element approaching the border as a military target.

A first substantial convoy of about 30 military vehicles, including trucks loaded with anti-aircraft missile batteries dispatched from Turkey’s coastal town of Iskenderun, was moving slowly towards the Syrian border 30 miles away.

Turkey, in the front line of western efforts to press Assad from power, hosts 33,000 Syrian refugees on its south-eastern border as well as units of the rebel Free Syria Army (FSA).

The UN refugee agency said yesterday that the number of people fleeing the violence in Syria could double to 185,000 by the end of the year.

The FSA has stepped up pressure on Damascus in recent weeks. Yesterday’s attack marking a new stage in the campaign.

On Wednesday, rebels stormed a pro-Assad Syrian television channel and militants have targeted police and security personnel barracks. In April, militants fired rocket-propelled grenades at the Central Bank building.

On the diplomatic front, Russia yesterday acknowledged that a transition period is necessary in Syria to end the violence, but said it had not agreed to a plan by United Nations envoy Kofi Annan that would call for Assad to step down and for the creation of a national unity government.

US secretary of state Hillary Clinton argued it was “very clear” that the participants – including Russia – were on board with the transition plan.

She told reporters that the invitations to the meeting made clear that representatives “were coming on the basis of [Annan’s] transition plan.”

She said she expects the meeting “to provide an opportunity to make real progress” on that plan.

Diplomatic hopes have rested on Russia – Syria’s most important ally – to agree to a plan that would end the 40-year Assad dynasty.

Opposition groups reiterated their stance no deal was possible that did not include Assad stepping down.