Syrian rebels, troops fight for Idlib

Syrian insurgents fought for control of the last quarter of a northern rebel stronghold city Wednesday on the first anniversary of the anti-regime uprising. The fighting in central neighborhoods of the Sunni Muslim city of Idlib, near the Turkish border, resembled last month's fighting in the opposition Baba Amr neighborhood of the western-central city of Homs, which Assad-regime forces reclaimed two weeks ago, activist groups said. Forces loyal to President Bashar Assad bombarded Idlib using tanks, helicopters and artillery, rockets and mortars in the barrage's fourth day, activists said. Hundreds of refugees fled Idlib for Turkey and Lebanon, the activists said. Syrian troops planted land mines near the Turkish and Lebanese borders, Human Rights Watch said Tuesday. The land mines have already caused civilian casualties, the rights group said. Syria's semi-official Addounia TV showed scenes of Idlib destruction, which it blamed on "foreigners and terrorists," and broadcast interviews with residents praising the Syrian army for protecting them. Fighting also erupted around Homs and in the northeastern Euphrates River city of Deir al-Zor, opposition groups said. Syria's restriction on foreign news coverage made it impossible to independently assess the fighting. Arab League Secretary-General Nabil al-Araby and Amnesty International both said Tuesday the regime's killing of civilians amounted to crimes against humanity. They both called for an international inquiry. The rights group said the scale of torture -- mostly by Assad-regime forces but also by armed opposition groups -- was the worst the country had experienced in 30 years. Russia pledged to continue selling weapons to the Assad regime. "We have specialists in Syria and we cooperate militarily with Syria," Deputy Defense Minister Anatoly Antonov told reporters in Moscow. "This is not a secret," he said. "We have good, solid, military and technical cooperation with Syria. And today, we don't have a basis to reconsider this military cooperation." Assad, who blames the uprising on a crime wave by foreign-backed terrorist gangs, Tuesday set nationwide parliamentary elections for May 7. US State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland dismissed the vote as insincere and pointless. "Parliamentary elections for a rubber-stamp Parliament in the middle of the kind of violence that we're seeing across the country is ridiculous," she said. The vote was to have taken place in March but was postponed after February's referendum on the country's new Constitution that let new political parties run. UN-Arab League special envoy Kofi Annan said Tuesday he was waiting to hear from Syrian officials about the "concrete proposals" he offered to Assad over the weekend to end the bloodshed. He did not discuss any details. "Once I receive their answer we will know how to react," Annan said in a statement. "The killings and violence must cease. The Syrian people have gone through a lot and they deserve better."