West quietly cooperating with Syria regime: Assad
Syrian President Bashar al Assad said in an interview broadcast yesterday that Western countries had sent security officials to help his government covertly in fighting Islamist militants involved in Syria's war.
Assad, in remarks to Australia's SBS News channel that were carried by Syrian state media, said Western states - who are strongly opposed to his rule but also face the threat of Islamist attacks at home - were secretly cooperating with his government in counter-terrorism operations.
"They attack us politically and then they send officials to deal with us under the table, especially the security, including your [the Australian] government," Assad was quoted as saying.
"They don't want to upset the United States. Actually most of the Western officials, they only repeat what the United States want them to say. This is the reality," he said. There was no immediate comment from Western governments.
The report came as reports said the Obama administration is considering a plan to coordinate air strikes on Nusra Front and Islamic State militants in Syria if Syria'a government stops bombing moderate rebels.
The Washington Post, which first reported the plan, said the Obama administration has submitted a written proposal to Moscow, but two US officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that while the plan is under discussion within the administration, no decisions have been made.
On the ground, separate air raids in northern Syria by regime aircraft and warplanes of the US-led international coalition killed at least 25 civilians yesterday, a monitoring group said.
President Bashar al-Assad's air force attacked a crowded market in Aleppo city's rebel-held district of Tariq al-Bab, killing 11 people, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported.
Another five people were killed in an air raid on the southern rebel-held neighbourhood of Sheikh Said, it said.
Meanwhile, Islamist rebels captured and killed a Syrian air force pilot after his plane crashed near Damascus yesterday, the army said.
A monitoring group, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said earlier that the plane went down in the mountainous region of Qalamun, northwest of the capital.
The conflict in Syria has killed more than 280,000 people over the past five years and displaced millions from their homes.
Comments