U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta warned Syrian President Bashar al-Assad late on Sunday that the assault on his own population in Aleppo would be a nail in his coffin.
Syrian troops said they had recaptured a district of Syria’s largest city Aleppo, after heavy fighting against rebels who remain in control of swathes of the commercial hub despite being pushed out of the capital Damascus.
The past two weeks have seen forces of President Bashar al-Assad struggle as never before to maintain their grip on the country after a major rebel advance into the two main cities and a July 18 explosion that killed four top security officials.
Syrian troops said they had recaptured a district of Syria’s largest city Aleppo, after heavy fighting against rebels who remain in control of swathes of the commercial hub despite being pushed out of the capital Damascus.
The past two weeks have seen forces of President Bashar al-Assad struggle as never before to maintain their grip on the country after a major rebel advance into the two main cities and a July 18 explosion that killed four top security officials.
“It’s pretty clear that Aleppo is another tragic example of the kind of indiscriminate violence that the Assad regime has committed against its own people,” Panetta told reporters on a military plane en route to Tunisia.
“And in many ways, if they continue this kind of tragic attack on their own people in Aleppo, I think ultimately it will be a nail in Assad’s coffin,” he said, according to AFP.
“He’s just assuring that the Assad regime will come to an end by virtue of the kind of violence they're committing against their own people.”
According to Panetta, Assad has “lost all legitimacy, and the more violence he engages in, the more he makes the case that the regime is coming to an end.”
It’s no longer a question of whether the regime will fall, “it’s when,” he added.
More than 20,000 people have been killed, including 14,000 civilians, since the uprising against Assad’s rule erupted in March 2011, according to the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
“The United States and the international community have made very clear that this is intolerable, and have brought diplomatic and economic pressure on Syria to stop this kind of violence, to have Assad step down and to transition to a democratic form of government,” Panetta said.
Obama, waging a tough domestic battle ahead of the Nov. 6 election, has demanded that Assad stand down and offered logistical support to the opposition, but his administration has ruled out using force.
International efforts to squeeze Assad by isolating his regime and seeking sanctions against his inner circle have been frustrated by Russian and Chinese opposition at the U.N. Security Council.
Panetta said the United States was paying particular attention to securing Syria’s chemical and biological weapon sites, especially by maintaining “close cooperation with countries in the region.”
His trip to Tunisia is the first stop of an international tour that will also take him to Egypt, Israel and Jordan.
His Middle East trip has a security agenda, including new concerns about Syrian chemical weapons, along with election-season political stakes.
“And in many ways, if they continue this kind of tragic attack on their own people in Aleppo, I think ultimately it will be a nail in Assad’s coffin,” he said, according to AFP.
“He’s just assuring that the Assad regime will come to an end by virtue of the kind of violence they're committing against their own people.”
According to Panetta, Assad has “lost all legitimacy, and the more violence he engages in, the more he makes the case that the regime is coming to an end.”
It’s no longer a question of whether the regime will fall, “it’s when,” he added.
More than 20,000 people have been killed, including 14,000 civilians, since the uprising against Assad’s rule erupted in March 2011, according to the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
“The United States and the international community have made very clear that this is intolerable, and have brought diplomatic and economic pressure on Syria to stop this kind of violence, to have Assad step down and to transition to a democratic form of government,” Panetta said.
Obama, waging a tough domestic battle ahead of the Nov. 6 election, has demanded that Assad stand down and offered logistical support to the opposition, but his administration has ruled out using force.
International efforts to squeeze Assad by isolating his regime and seeking sanctions against his inner circle have been frustrated by Russian and Chinese opposition at the U.N. Security Council.
Panetta said the United States was paying particular attention to securing Syria’s chemical and biological weapon sites, especially by maintaining “close cooperation with countries in the region.”
His trip to Tunisia is the first stop of an international tour that will also take him to Egypt, Israel and Jordan.
His Middle East trip has a security agenda, including new concerns about Syrian chemical weapons, along with election-season political stakes.
Death toll mounts as fighting rages
Meanwhile, fighting raged on the second day of a fierce government offensive, as the United Nations said 200,000 civilians had fled and many were trapped after Assad deployed tanks and attack helicopters to try to dislodge the rebels.
The Syrian opposition said government forces were preparing to carry out “massacres” and pleaded the international community to provide heavy weapons to enable rebels to meet the regime onslaught.
Elsewhere in Syria, as many as 163 people have been killed by the fire of Syrian forces across the country on Sunday, Syrian activists said. At least 30 people were killed by Syrian troops in a new massacre in al-Sheikh Meskeen in Deraa, according to activists.
Government forces have succeeded in imposing their grip on Damascus but rebel fighters gained control of parts of Aleppo, a city of 2.5 million people, where Reuters journalists have toured neighborhoods dotted with Free Syrian Army checkpoints flying black and white Islamist banners.
Fighting for the past several days has focused on the Salaheddine district in the southwest of Aleppo, where government troops have been backed by helicopter gunships.
Rebel fighters, patrolling opposition districts in flat-bed trucks flying green-white-and-black “independence” flags, said they were holding off Assad’s forces in Salaheddine. However, the government said it had pushed them out.
“Complete control of Salaheddine has been (won back) from those mercenary gunmen,” an unidentified military officer told Syrian state television late on Sunday. “In a few days safety and security will return to the city of Aleppo.”
Reuters journalists in the city were not able to approach the district after nightfall on Sunday to verify whether rebels had been pushed out. The pro-opposition Syrian Observatory for Human rights said fighting was continuing there.
The Syrian opposition said government forces were preparing to carry out “massacres” and pleaded the international community to provide heavy weapons to enable rebels to meet the regime onslaught.
Elsewhere in Syria, as many as 163 people have been killed by the fire of Syrian forces across the country on Sunday, Syrian activists said. At least 30 people were killed by Syrian troops in a new massacre in al-Sheikh Meskeen in Deraa, according to activists.
Government forces have succeeded in imposing their grip on Damascus but rebel fighters gained control of parts of Aleppo, a city of 2.5 million people, where Reuters journalists have toured neighborhoods dotted with Free Syrian Army checkpoints flying black and white Islamist banners.
Fighting for the past several days has focused on the Salaheddine district in the southwest of Aleppo, where government troops have been backed by helicopter gunships.
Rebel fighters, patrolling opposition districts in flat-bed trucks flying green-white-and-black “independence” flags, said they were holding off Assad’s forces in Salaheddine. However, the government said it had pushed them out.
“Complete control of Salaheddine has been (won back) from those mercenary gunmen,” an unidentified military officer told Syrian state television late on Sunday. “In a few days safety and security will return to the city of Aleppo.”
Reuters journalists in the city were not able to approach the district after nightfall on Sunday to verify whether rebels had been pushed out. The pro-opposition Syrian Observatory for Human rights said fighting was continuing there.
The government also declared victory on Sunday in the battle for the capital, which the rebels assaulted in force two weeks ago but have been repulsed in unprecedented fighting.
“Today I tell you, Syria is stronger ... In less than a week they were defeated (in Damascus) and the battle failed,” Foreign Minister Walid al-Moualem said on a visit to Iran, Assad’s main ally in the region.
“So they moved on to Aleppo and I assure you, their plots will fail.”
Assad’s ruling structure draws strongly on his Alawite minority sect, an offshoot of Shiite Islam, while his opposition is drawn largely from the Sunni Muslim majority, backed by Sunni leaders who rule nearly all other Arab states.
That has raised fears the 16-month conflict could spread across the Middle East, where a sectarian divide between Sunnis and Shiites has been at the root of violence in Iraq, Lebanon, Bahrain and elsewhere.
Shiite Iran demonstrated its firm support for Assad by hosting his foreign minister. At a joint news conference with Moualem, Iran’s Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi rebuked the West and Arab states for holding the “illusion” that Assad could be easily be replaced in a managed transition.
The battle for Aleppo is a decisive test of the government’s ability to put down the revolt after the July 18 explosion killed four of its top security officials and wrecked the Assad family’s image of untouchable might.
It has committed huge military resources to Aleppo after losing control of outlying rural areas and some border crossings with Turkey and Iraq.
“Today I tell you, Syria is stronger ... In less than a week they were defeated (in Damascus) and the battle failed,” Foreign Minister Walid al-Moualem said on a visit to Iran, Assad’s main ally in the region.
“So they moved on to Aleppo and I assure you, their plots will fail.”
Assad’s ruling structure draws strongly on his Alawite minority sect, an offshoot of Shiite Islam, while his opposition is drawn largely from the Sunni Muslim majority, backed by Sunni leaders who rule nearly all other Arab states.
That has raised fears the 16-month conflict could spread across the Middle East, where a sectarian divide between Sunnis and Shiites has been at the root of violence in Iraq, Lebanon, Bahrain and elsewhere.
Shiite Iran demonstrated its firm support for Assad by hosting his foreign minister. At a joint news conference with Moualem, Iran’s Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi rebuked the West and Arab states for holding the “illusion” that Assad could be easily be replaced in a managed transition.
The battle for Aleppo is a decisive test of the government’s ability to put down the revolt after the July 18 explosion killed four of its top security officials and wrecked the Assad family’s image of untouchable might.
It has committed huge military resources to Aleppo after losing control of outlying rural areas and some border crossings with Turkey and Iraq.
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