STORY HIGHLIGHTS
- NEW: Two senior diplomats have defected, the opposition Syrian National Council says
- Rebel troops prepare to face government reinforcements in Aleppo
- Turkey says it is closing all border gates with Syria on Wednesday
- Opposition group: At least 50 people are killed Wednesday
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(CNN) -- Leaders of Syrian rebel forces ordered
their fighters to attack hundreds of government troops heading toward
Aleppo, the country's largest city, a Free Syrian Army official told CNN
Wednesday.
The Syrian regime
withdrew about 2,000 fully equipped troops, along with their tanks and
artillery, from Idlib and sent them to Aleppo, about 40 miles away, the
official said.
As the commercial hub of
Syria, Aleppo is a crucial city in the country's 16-month conflict. If
rebels eventually gain control of the city it would mark a pivotal point
in the Syrian crisis and deal a heavy blow to President Bashar
al-Assad's financial ties.
Across Syria, at least 50
people were killed in fresh violence Wednesday, opposition activists
said. The dead included six people in Aleppo and six children, the Local
Coordination Committees of Syria said.
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Rebel forces have been trying to wrest control of Aleppo from government forces.
"There is random shelling
of the eastern portion of the city as the Syrian Army is trying to
force out the FSA (Free Syrian Army). They are hitting civilian homes
over and over," one activist told CNN via Skype Tuesday.
CNN's Ivan Watson, who is
inside Syria, said he had noticed the rebels had become better armed in
the past few months. While they only had shotguns at one point, they
now have rocket-propelled grenades and assault rifles, he said.
The increased firepower
has helped the rebels successfully attack armored vehicles and forced
some Syrian forces to resupply by helicopter.
Watson said that in the
village he was in, hundreds of rebels had loaded up with ammunition this
week and headed to fight in Aleppo.
Both Aleppo and the capital city of Damascus have been al-Assad strongholds.
On Tuesday, state-run
media reported that regime troops had regained control of neighborhoods
in Damascus, where rebels fought al-Assad's forces last week.
Alex Thomson, a journalist for CNN British affiliate ITN, confirmed the developments from Damascus.
"It is quite clear that
the regime has just had, in Damascus, the biggest boost to its morale in
16 months of violent civil war," Thomson wrote. "This is a
comprehensive victory of the Assad regime in its own backyard and
capital."
In what may be a blow to
the regime, however, the opposition Syrian National Council said
Wednesday that two senior Syrian diplomats were the latest to defect.
One is the Syrian ambassador to the United Arab Emirates, Abdullatif Al Dabbagh, SNC spokesman George Sabra said.
The second is Al
Dabbagh's wife, who is also the Syrian envoy to Cyprus, Lamia Al
Harriri. She defected to Qatar, SNC member Najy Tayyarah told CNN. She
is also the niece of Syrian Vice President Farouq Al Sharea.
Al Dabbagh had helped a lot of Syrians in need, Tayyarah said from Istanbul.
Meanwhile, Turkey's
customs and trade minister said "all border gates with Syria will be
closed" Wednesday, Turkish state-run TV reported. A government statement
was expected later in the day.
Thousands of Syrians
have fled to Turkey in recent months to escape violence in their
country, but the refugees generally cross from fields through the border
fence, not the border gates.
The chaos in Syria took an ominous turn this week after a Syrian official discussed his country's weapons of mass destruction.
Jihad Makdissi, Syria's
Foreign Ministry spokesman, told reporters Monday that "any stocks of
WMD or any unconventional weapon that the Syrian Arab Republic possesses
would never be used against civilians or against the Syrian people
during this crisis at any circumstances, no matter how the crisis would
evolve.
"All the stocks of these
weapons that the Syrian Arab Republic possesses are monitored and
guarded by the Syrian Army," Makdissi added. He further said that the
"weapons are meant to be used only and strictly in the event of external
aggression against the Syrian Arab Republic."
Russia said Syria had
ratified 1925 Geneva protocols "banning the use of asphyxiating, toxic
and other gases in military conditions" and expects the country to abide
by that agreement. That protocol was "entered into force" in 1928, the
United Nations said.
Russia has been a friend and ally of the al-Assad regime.
Showdown in Syria
Photos: Massacre in Syria
Photos: Front lines of Free Syrian Army
U.N. Secretary-General
Ban Ki-moon said Syria is not a party to the Organization for the
Prohibition of Chemical Weapons. That's the body of the Chemical Weapons
Convention dedicated to eliminating the weapons.
Al-Assad's regime
"probably has the largest and most advanced chemical warfare program in
the Arab world," according to Michael Eisenstadt, senior fellow and
director of the military and security studies program at the Washington
Institute for Near East Policy.
It includes "thousands
of tube and rocket artillery rounds filled with mustard-type blister
agents, thousands of bombs filled with the nerve agents sarin and
possibly VX, and binary-type and cluster CW warheads filled with nerve
agents for all its major missile systems.
"Its CW infrastructure
is believed to include several production facilities and numerous
storage sites, mostly dispersed throughout the western half of the
country," Eisenstadt said.
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