Syrian regime jets pound rebels after intelligence general killed

The death of General Jamaa Jamaa in Deir Ezzor is a major victory for rebels fighting the regime of Bashar Al Assad.

BEIRUT // Syrian jets bombarded the eastern city of Deir Ezzor on Friday after heavy overnight clashes and the killing of a top military intelligence officers.

General Jamaa Jamaa was shot dead on Thursday by snipers in the middle of a battle with rebels including forces linked to Al Qaeda, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

His death, celebrated by rebels and opposition activists, marked a significant setback for Bashar Al Assad’s bid to retain a hold over the city, capital of the eastern oil-producing province.

A death notice published on Facebook said Jamaa’s body was being flown back for burial on Friday in his home village of Zama in the mountains overlooking the Mediterranean, the heartland of Mr Al Assad’s Alawite sect.

Syria’s two-and-a-half year uprising began with peaceful protests but has descended into civil war with sectarian dimensions. Syria’s Sunni majority has largely joined the revolt against four decades of Assad family rule. Minority sects such as the Alawites, an offshoot of Shiite Islam, have largely stood behind the president.

Jamaa, 59, had served as Syria’s top military intelligence officer in Lebanon until Damascus withdrew its forces under intense international pressure in 2005.

The withdrawal followed the February 14, 2005 assassination of Lebanon’s former prime minister Rafik Al Hariri, a killing widely blamed at the time on Syria, and for which Jamaa was investigated by a United Nations team.

Jamaa was then appointed chief of military intelligence in Deir Ezzor, a prominent and sensitive position because of the flow of Sunni militants across the border into Iraq where insurgents were fighting US and Iraqi Shiite forces.

In August 2011, five months after protests first erupted against Mr Al Assad, the European Union imposed sanctions on Jamaa for his role in “repression and violence against the civilian population”.

Activists say dozens of rebels and pro-Assad forces have been killed this week in heavy fighting around Deir Ezzor.

The observatory reported clashes overnight in several districts of the city and said rebels from the Al Qaeda-linked Jabhat Al Nusra executed 10 soldiers they captured in the Rashidiyah district, where Jamaa was killed on Thursday.

While rebels had made progress and launched an attack on the nearby military airport, they were unlikely to achieve a speedy and complete victory in the strategic region which borders Iraq, the observatory’s Rami Abdulrahman said.

Although much of Deir Ezzor province is under rebel control, some tribes remain loyal to Mr Al Assad and control of the city itself is shared between rebels and loyalists, he said.

Syria’s civil war has killed more than 110,000 people and divided the Middle East between Sunni Gulf states and Turkey which mostly support the rebels, and Shiite Iran and Hizbollah which have backed Mr Al Assad.

International efforts are growing to convene peace talks in Geneva next month, encouraged by rare agreement among global powers over the elimination of Syria’s chemical weapons after sarin gas attacks near Damascus in August.

But the United States and Russia, responding to Syria’s announcement that the talks would go ahead in Geneva on November 23-24, said on Thursday that no date had yet been set.

The international envoy for Syria, Lakhdar Brahimi, is due to hold talks in the region next week to try to prepare for the negotiations, his spokeswoman Khawla Mattar said.

Brahimi will start his tour in Cairo on Saturday, meeting Egypt’s foreign minister. Iran and Syria are expected to be among the stops on Mr Brahimi’s itinerary.

While Mr Brahimi is in the Middle East, Mr Al Assad’s international opponents will gather in London on Tuesday. The office of French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said he will travel to Britain for the meeting, which will be attended by the US secretary of state, John Kerry.

Even if the long-delayed Geneva talks do go ahead there is little prospect of forging a political deal on which Mr Al Assad and his foes could agree.

George Sabra, head of the Syrian National Council which is a prominent party in Syria’s broad opposition coalition, said on Friday that Mr Al Assad must step down as a precondition for the talks in Switzerland on political transition in Syria.

“We want an announcement in advance that Bashar Al Assad and his ruling clique ... form no part of the political life in Syria in the transitional stage and in future,” he said. “The transitional body that results from the meeting should have full powers including those of the presidency.”

Mr Al Assad has said he will not step down before presidential elections next year in which he may seek a third term. He has ruled out a ceasefire with rebels he dismisses as terrorists and says there can be no talks with any opposition figures who support foreign military or political intervention in Syria.

* Reuters