Al-Assad denies Syria is in civil war

President Bashar al-Assad denied Syria was in a state of civil war as the opposition met Friday for crucial unity talks and the main armed rebel group said it was undergoing a drastic reorganisation. Underlining the mounting humanitarian crisis, Ankara said some 8,000 Syrians had fled to Turkey overnight after heavy clashes near the border, bringing to more than 120,000 the number of Syrian refugees in the country. In an interview with Russian television, Assad warned that Syria was facing a protracted conflict because foreign powers were backing the rebels, but insisted there was no civil war. If support for rebels from abroad stopped, Assad told state-run Russia Today (RT), "I can tell that in weeks we can finish everything. "But as long as you have a continuous supply in terrorists, armaments, logistics and everything else, it is going to be a long-term war." Assad admitted divisions existed in the country, but said "division does not mean civil war", said his future could be decided only through the ballot box and denied his forces had committed war crimes. Al-Assad's comments came as his foes in the opposition met in the Qatari capital Doha for Western- and Arab-backed efforts to unite in a government-in-waiting representing the whole spectrum of regime opponents. He lashed out at Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, accusing him of behaving like an Ottoman sultan and thinking he is a "caliph", also in his interview with Russian television broadcast Friday. Ties between the one-time allies Syria and Turkey have soured dramatically over the conflict between. "In his heart he thinks he is a caliph," said Assad, referring to the title used by leaders of the Islamic world from the early Arab Islamic dynasties up to the Ottoman empire. Assad said that the mentality of Erdogan-who leads the Islamist-rooted Justice and Development Party (AKP)-was to blame for collapse of relations between the Damascus regime and Ankara. Erdogan has shifted his policy on Syria from "zero problems to zero friends," said Assad, who noted that he last spoke with Erdogan in May 2011. Assad accused Erdogan of wanting the Muslim Brotherhood to take over the Middle East region so that "he (Erdogan) can guarantee his political future". Tensions between Ankara and Damascus flared particularly after a Turkish fighter jet was brought down by Syrian fire in June, killing two pilots, and further deteriorated last month when Syrian The Observatory says more than 37,000 people have died since the uprising against Assad erupted in March 2011, first as a protest movement and then an armed rebellion after the regime cracked down on demonstrations. At least 12 civilians were killed in shelling of a village in the eastern province of Deir Ezzor, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said, with a video released by activists showing bloodied corpses, including at least one of a child, lying in the middle of a road. Warplanes were meanwhile flying over Damascus to bomb targets in rebel-held suburbs, an AFP correspondent said, and heavy explosions could be heard around the capital in the early morning. On Thursday, 142 people were killed in violence across the country, including 56 civilians, said the Britain-based Observatory, which relies on a network of activists and medics on the ground. Among the heaviest clashes on Thursday were battles for control of the mainly Kurdish northeastern town of Ras al-Ain on the Turkish border that killed 16 soldiers and 10 rebels, according to the Observatory. A Turkish foreign ministry official told AFP that 8,000 refugees had fled to Turkey from the area overnight and that six Turkish civilians had been wounded by shots from across the border.