Monday, May 14, 2012

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DAMASCUS (AFP)--Fierce clashes between government forces and armed rebels in central Syria on Monday killed 23 Syrian soldiers and wounded dozens, a watchdog said, as the European Union imposed fresh sanctions on Damascus.

Also Monday, Russia said it was "absolutely clear" that al Qaeda and its associates were behind twin bomb attacks in the Syrian capital last week that killed 55 people.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said three troop carriers were destroyed in clashes that began at dawn on the outskirts of Rastan, a rebel-held city located in restive Homs province.

A lieutenant who had defected was also killed in the clashes.

Regime forces launched an offensive on the city at the weekend but have met with sharp resistance from rebels seeking the ouster of the President Bashar al-Assad and his regime.

The Observatory said dozens had been wounded in shelling of the city by Syrian troops.

And in Quraya in the eastern province of Deir Ezzor, a 15-year-old boy was killed by machinegun fire as government forces raided the town, the U.K.-based watchdog said, bringing the total number of people killed on Monday to 25.

The unrest comes despite a month-old ceasefire brokered by U.N.-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan as part of a six-point plan aimed at ending violence that has swept Syria since March last year when a popular revolt erupted against Assad's regime.

On the diplomatic front, E.U. foreign ministers meeting in Brussels on Monday slapped a 15th round of sanctions on Syria, due to the "appalling violence" there and discussed further support for Kofi Annan's peace plan.

"The continuing violence is appalling and we continue to look again at sanctions," said EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton.

Ashton said the bloc at the weekend delivered a fleet of 25 armoured vehicles to help Annan's observer mission, deployed under his peace plan which the EU sees as the only possible way to avoid all-out civil war in Syria.

In some of the worst violence seen since the conflict erupted, twin suicide bombings in Damascus Thursday killed 55 people and wounded 372. Russia's foreign ministry pointed the finger of blame Monday squarely at Islamist extremists

"For us it is absolutely clear that terrorist groups are behind this--al Qaeda and those groups that work with al Qaeda," Deputy Foreign Minister Gennady Gatilov told reporters.

Al-Nusra Front, an Islamist group unknown before the Syrian revolt, released a video on Saturday claiming responsibility for the Damascus attacks as revenge for regime bombing of residential areas in several towns and to avenge Sunnis killed by forces loyal to Assad.

Claims by the group, including for past bombings, have been difficult to verify.

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

14-05-12 1242GMT