SYRIA

France became the first European power to recognize Syria's new opposition coalition as the sole representative of its people and said on Tuesday it would look into arming rebels against President Bashar al-Assadonce they form a government.

In a rare interview with Russia Today TV, President Bashar al-Assad vigorously clarified his stance on the current Syrian crisis created by the West and some regional states including Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Qatar and warned them of the apocalyptic consequences of any foreign intervention in Syria.

As British Prime Minister David Cameron prepares to use the Royal Air Force (RAF) in Syria to put an end to the massacres the Syrian regime is committing throughout the country, British Special Forces are training rebels to assassinate the Syrian president and his commanders, the London Daily Star reported.

Following the re-election of Barack Obama in last week’s US presidential poll, Washington and its allies have stepped up their war drive against Syria. In the most serious escalation of the 20-month conflict in the Middle East country, the Israeli armed forces fired a missile into Syrian territory Sunday.

"The current situation in Syria could carry on for an extended and bloody period. If we see that it spills over in our direction, we know how to defend the citizens and the sovereignty of the State of Israel"

At least ten people have been killed, including children, in a suspected car bomb explosion in Jaramana district of southern Damascus, with a mostly Christian and Druze population.

Syrian security forces have killed a local al-Qaeda leader and scores of foreign-sponsored insurgents during heavy clashes near the eastern city of Deir al-Zour.

Chairman of the Russian State Duma International Affairs Committee, Alexei Pushkov, said the world countries have to recognize that it is impossible to resolve the crisis in Syria through supporting and arming the terrorist groups, holding the US responsible for spreading and instigating the crisis in Syria.

A group of Syrians have staged a rally in the northwestern city of Aleppo to protest against the presence of foreign-sponsored insurgents and voice staunch support for mop-up operations carried out by government forces against armed men.

In their fervent struggle, a Syrian rebel group has "arrested" a Lebanese journalist in Aleppo saying his “presence as a journalist no longer receives approval in areas controlled by the rebels.”

The Syrian army says insurgent groups fighting against the government have violated the temporary ceasefire by attacking military checkpoints in several cities.

The United States said Tuesday it backs efforts to form a new governing coalition in Lebanon, after last week's deadly bomb blast in Beirut plunged the country into political crisis.

Most of the arms funneled to Syrian rebels reportedly end up in the hands of hardline Islamist extremists, including those affiliated with Al-Qaeda. There is no way of vetting rebel groups to bolster only those with more secular views.

Former Prime Minister Saad Hariri called for mass participation in Sunday's rally in Beirut over the killing of a top intelligence official and said the slain officer had prevented President Bashar Assad from destabilizing Lebanon.

Turkey's military has fired on Syria 87 times, killing 12 Syrian soldiers and destroying several tanks in retaliation for Syrian shells and mortars landing on Turkish territory, a Turkish newspaper reported on Saturday.

Around 100 young men with Norwegian citizenship have travelled to Syria to participate in the civil war, NRK reports, quoting Muslim sources.

A foreign-sponsored Syrian insurgent has accused some Arab countries of betraying the self-proclaimed Free Syrian Army (FSA) that is fighting against the Syrian government.

French authorities say a group of suspected radical Islamists posed the biggest danger to France in years and were planning to join militants in Syria.

At least eight people have been killed and another eight wounded in an attack on a bus carrying civilians near the Syrian border with Lebanon.

A political analyst says the majority of Turkish people are against NATO intervention in the Syria-Turkey conflict and their government’s policies towards the Arab country, Press TV reports.

“In Turkey, the people do not think that NATO will have to come to Turkey because in 1991 when Turkey had the first [Persian] Gulf War situation, NATO was also not providing the expected military and economic aid to Turkey,” said Huseyin Bagci of the Middle East University, Ankara.

The Americans, who arrived in the kingdom a few weeks ago at the request of the Jordanians, are helping them develop techniques to protect civilians in case of a chemical attack from neighboring Syria, according to Jordanian officials.