Former U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan is quitting as international peace envoy for Syria, frustrated by "finger-pointing" at the United Nations while the armed rebellion against President Bashar al-Assad becomes increasingly bloody.
As battles raged on Thursday in Syria's second city
Aleppo between rebel fighters and government forces using war planes and
artillery, U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon announced in New York that Annan
had said he would go at the end of the month.
"Kofi Annan deserves our profound admiration for the
selfless way in which he has put his formidable skills and prestige to this
most difficult and potentially thankless of assignments," Ban said. Talks
were under way to find a successor.
Annan's mission, centered on an April ceasefire that
never took hold, has looked irrelevant as fighting has intensified in Damascus,
Aleppo and elsewhere.
Annan blamed "finger-pointing and name-calling"
at the U.N. Security Council for his decision to quit but suggested his
successor may have better luck.
"The world is full of crazy people like me. So don't
be surprised if Secretary General Ban Ki-moon can find someone who can do a
better job than me," Annan said.
Syria expressed regret that Annan was going. Russia, a
key ally of Damascus, also said it regretted the decision, while Britain, which
wants Assad to resign, said it showed that the mediation process was not
working.
The White House said Annan's decision to quit had
highlighted Assad's failure to meet his promise to abide by the ceasefire plan,
and added that it continued to believe that "Assad must go".
In Syria, the fight for Aleppo, the latest battlefield,
intensified. Rebels turned the gun of a captured tank against government forces,
shelling a military airbase north of the city.
Assad's troops meanwhile bombarded the strategic
Salaheddine district in Aleppo itself with tank and artillery fire supported by
combat aircraft while rebels tried to consolidate their hold on areas they have
seized.
In the capital Damascus, troops overran a suburb on
Wednesday and killed at least 35 people, mostly unarmed civilians, residents
and activist organizations said.
The fighting for Syria's two biggest cities highlights
the country's rapid slide into full-scale civil war 17 months on from the
peaceful street protests that marked the start of the anti-Assad uprising.
World powers have watched with mounting concern as diplomatic
efforts, including Annan's mediation effort, have faltered and violence that
has already claimed an estimated 18,000 lives worsens.
About 60 people were killed in Syria on Thursday, 43 of
them civilians, according to the opposition Syrian Observatory for Human
Rights.
The rebels' morale was boosted when they turned a
government tank's gun on the Menakh airfield 35 km (22 miles) north of Aleppo -
a possible staging post for army reinforcements and a base for war planes and
helicopter gunships.
"We hit the airport using a tank that we captured
from the Assad army. We attacked the airport a few times but we have decided to
retreat at this time," a rebel fighter named Abu Ali told Reuters.
Other rebel sources said they had pulled back after
coming under fire from MiG warplanes from the airport.
The lightly armed insurgents are battling a well-equipped
army that has overwhelming superiority on paper. But the rebels have managed to
capture some tanks and heavy weapons and their ranks are swelled by army
defectors.
Rebel fighters said they had used improvised explosives
in an attack on the Nejrab international airport on the outskirts of Aleppo but
there were no reports of serious damage.
Reuters correspondents heard heavy weapons fire on
Thursday morning from Salaheddine in southwest Aleppo, a gateway to the city
that has been fought over for the past week.
Heavily armed government troops are trying to drive a
force of a few thousand rebel fighters from the city in battle whose outcome
could be a turning point in the conflict.
Although government forces have made concerted efforts to
take Salaheddine, a full-out assault on the city as a whole has yet to take
place.
Mobile phone connections have been cut since Wednesday
evening, leading to speculation among residents that an increase in military
action might be imminent.
The rebels are consolidating areas they control in
Aleppo, attacking police posts and minor military installations with some
success. They claim to have seized three police stations this week.
Aleppo had long stayed aloof from the uprising but many
of its 2.5 million residents are now caught up in battle zones, facing
shortages of food, fuel, water and cooking gas. Thousands have fled and
hospitals and makeshift clinics can barely cope with casualties after more than
a week of combat.
The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organisation said up to
three million Syrians are likely to need food and other aid in the next 12
months because the conflict has prevented farmers from harvesting their crops.
Syria meanwhile accused Turkey of backing terrorism by
opening its airports and borders to al Qaeda to carry out attacks inside Syria.
Once an ally of Syria, Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip
Erdogan has called on Assad to step down and has set up refugee camps for
thousands of displaced Syrians.
"The Turkish government plays a fundamental role in
supporting terrorism by opening its airport and borders to host al Qaeda
elements, jihadists and salafists," Syria's foreign ministry said in a
statement circulated on state television.
"The Turkish government has set up on its soil
military offices where Israeli, American, Qatari and Saudi intelligence
agencies direct the terrorists in their war on the Syrian people," the
statement said.
Damascus also accused France and the United States of
sending rebels communications equipment. U.S. sources have said President
Barack Obama signed a secret order authorizing U.S. support for rebels seeking
to depose Assad.
A Turkish foreign ministry spokesman said: "It is
not the first unsupported claim coming from Syria. These speculative claims are
not reflecting the truth."
In New York, the U.N. General Assembly was expected to
vote on Thursday on a resolution drafted by Saudi Arabia, which backs the
rebels.
Russia, which has consistently supported Syria at the
United Nations, said it would not back the resolution because it was unbalanced
and would encourage rebels to keep fighting.
**Additional reporting by Erika Solomon in Aleppo,
Dominic Evans in Beirut, Gabriela Baczynska in Moscow; Writing by Giles Elgood;
Editing by Michael Roddy