Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said Wednesday his government is fighting a “regional and global battle” and that more time was needed to win the conflict against anti-government rebels trying to overthrow him.
His comments came as renewed fighting broke out between rebels and Syrian forces near the Taftanaz military airport, located between the northern cities of Aleppo and Idlib.
Taftanaz has been targeted several times by rebels entrenched in the two cities, which have suffered daily shelling by government troops.
In excerpts from an interview with Syria's Addounia television to be broadcast in full later Wednesday, Mr. Assad described the situation on the ground as “better,” but still unresolved.
The Syrian leader, who has vowed to defeat rebels he describes as Islamist terrorists, praised the army and security forces for their “heroic conduct.” He also dismissed as “unrealistic” the idea of creating humanitarian buffer zones within Syria.
Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said Wednesday that Turkey has discussed with the U.N. the possibility of housing Syrian refugees inside Syria and that Ankara expected the world body to take concrete steps towards this.
Turkey has proposed the idea of a “safe zone” to be set up for civilians under foreign protection as fighting intensifies in the 17-month uprising. Up to 5,000 refugees a day have been crossing into Turkey over the past two weeks and the U.N. warned Tuesday that up to 200,000 people could settle there if the conflict worsens.
A Turkish aid official said about 80,000 refugees are registered in camps along the country's 900-kilometer-long border with Syria and that new camps will increase this capacity to 120,000 within the next 10 days.
The news came as the United Nations refugee agency called for increased international assistance to help Turkey and Jordan cope with the surge in the number of Syrian refugees seeking shelter.
The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees said Tuesday the number of Syrians fleeing to Jordan has doubled in recent days, with 10,200 arriving in the past week.
An agency spokeswoman said the new arrivals at the Za'atri camp in northern Jordan are mainly from Syria's southern flashpoint area of Daraa.
Also Tuesday, the Syrian military dropped thousands of leaflets over Damascus and its suburbs, urging rebels to hand over their weapons or be killed.
Syrian authorities blame the uprising on a foreign conspiracy and accuse oil-rich Gulf countries Saudi Arabia and Qatar, in addition to the United States and Turkey, of backing “terrorists” seeking to oust Mr. Assad's government.
Activists say at least 20,000 people have been killed since the insurrection broke out in March last year, while the United Nations says more than 214,000 people have fled to neighboring countries.
