AFP August 06, 20123:19AM
Syria's first astronaut, Muhammed Ahmed Faris, has successfully defected from Bashar al-Assad's (pictured) regime as this YouTube clip shows the violence continuing in Aleppo. Picture: AFP
GENERAL Muhammed Ahmed Faris, the first Syrian in space, fled to Turkey overnight after defecting from his country.
Before crossing into Turkey, Mr Faris visited the headquarters of the Free Syrian Army in his home town Aleppo in a show of solidarity with rebel forces battling Bashar al-Assad's troops in Syria's biggest city, it said.
The Anatolia News Agency said it was Mr Faris' fourth attempt to defect.
Mr Faris was born in 1951 in Aleppo, where the Syrian army was pounding rebel positions overnight ahead of a threatened ground assault on the city.
A graduate of the Aleppo's military pilot school in 1973, Mr Faris joined a Soviet crew on the orbiting space station Mir in 1987, for which he was awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union and also received the Order of Lenin.
Scores of senior Syrian military officers have been crossing into Turkey to link up with the FSA in recent months as the fighting in Syria escalates, often accompanied by rank-and-file troops.
Turkey has taken in more than 45,000 refugees fleeing the conflict across the border, and is also sheltering the military defectors in a separate camp where security is higher.
It came as Syrian regime warplanes pounded rebel positions in Aleppo overnight ahead of a threatened ground assault by more than 20,000 troops assembled around the commercial capital.
Iran appealed for help from governments with ties to the Syrian opposition in securing the release of 48 of its nationals seized from a bus in Damascus, as an Arabic news channel aired footage it said was of the Iranians in the hands of rebel captors who charged that their hostages were Revolutionary Guards.
A high-level security official said Syria's army completed its deployment of reinforcements to the northern city of Aleppo, ready for a decisive showdown.
"The war is likely to be long, because there will have to be street battles in order to get rid of the terrorists," the source said, declining to be named.
"All the reinforcements have arrived and they are surrounding the city," he said. "The army is ready to launch its offensive, but is awaiting orders."
Morning clashes killed at least two rebels in Aleppo, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said, adding Sunday's violence cost at least another 38 lives across the country - 24 civilians, 10 soldiers and four more rebels.
Troops shelled rebel-held Salaheddin district in the southwest and clashes erupted in the neighbourhoods of Sukari, Hamdaniyeh and Ansari neighbourhoods, the Britain-based watchdog said.
The opposition Syrian National Council charged the army bombardment of Aleppo, scene of fierce fighting since July 20, was hitting the city's key public institutions, some of historical significance.
"After failing to subdue (rebel forces) in Aleppo ... the Syrian regime's gangs have started to target government institutions and buildings," the exiled opposition group said. "Some of them have historical and archaeological value."
Aleppo preserves a raft of historical sites, including its renowned 13th century citadel. The UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation named the Ancient City a World Heritage Site in 1986.
The SNC accused the army of shelling Aleppo's television building.
"The criminal regime does not hesitate to shell these institutions," the group said. "The rebels were forced to move away from the television building in order to protect the Syrian people's property and heritage."
Rebels tried to storm the state television building on Saturday before being driven back by shelling, the Observatory said.
Meanwhile, a senior government security figure warned at the weekend that "the battle for Aleppo has not yet begun, and what is happening now is just the appetiser ... The main course will come later."
The official said at least 20,000 troops were now on the ground. "The other side are also sending reinforcements," the official added of the rebels, who claim to have seized half the city.
The pro-government Al-Watan newspaper said the army had killed "hundreds of terrorists" in Aleppo but that between 6000 and 8000 remained.
Syria's army said on Saturday it had seized Tadamun, the last rebel-held district of Damascus, after heavy fighting, and authorities took journalists on an escorted tour.
"We have cleansed all the districts of Damascus, from Al-Midan to Mazzeh, from Al-Hajar Al-Aswad to Qadam ... to Tadamun," an officer told reporters on the tour.
The fighting has displaced tens of thousands, including some 600 Palestinian families who arrived in Lebanon in the past three days, most escaping violence at the Yarmuk refugee camp in Damascus, a Palestinian official in Lebanon said.
Iran appealed to Qatar and Turkey, which both have close relations with the Syrian opposition, for help in securing the release of 48 nationals it says were seized while on pilgrimage to the Sayyida Zeinab shrine in Damascus.
Al-Arabiya television aired footage overnight which it said was of the Iranians in the captivity of rebel Free Syrian Army fighters who charged their hostages were elite Revolutionary Guards.
Fighters of the FSA's Al-Baraa Brigade had "captured 48 of the shabiha (pro-regime militiamen) of Iran who were on a reconnaissance mission in Damascus," said a man dressed as a rebel officer in the video screened by the Dubai-based channel.
"During the investigation, we found that some of them were officers in the Revolutionary Guards," he said, showing documents taken from one of the men, who appeared in the background.
Tehran, Damascus's key regional ally, has repeatedly denied it has sent any military units to Syria.
On the diplomatic front, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is to travel to Turkey next Saturday for talks on the conflict in Syria, a State Department spokeswoman said.
Read more: http://www.news.com.au/news/syrias-first-astronaut-muhammed-ahmed-faris-defects/story-fnejlrpu-1226443529699#ixzz22iF538d4
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