By Kate Gibson, MarketWatch –
NEW YORK — Syrian troops on Saturday shelled a northern region viewed as a center of a year-long uprising as President Bashar al-Assad met with an international envoy, media reports said.
As families fled the fighting in Idlib, Assad met with United Nations envoy Kofi Annan, in Damascus in an attempt to arrange a cease fire and talks between both sides of the conflict, the Associated Press reported. Annan, a Ghanian diplomat, was U.N. secretary-general from 1997 to 2006.
Assad said diplomatic efforts would not succeed as long as there are “armed terrorist groups that work to spread anarchy and destabilize the country,” the AP reported, citing the state news agency SANA.
Opposition leaders have also dismissed discussions with Assad’s regime, calling talks impossible given the military assaults that the U.N. estimates have killed more than 7,500 people and activists have resulted in more than 8,000 deaths.
Dozens of tanks and armored personnel carriers entered Idlib this week, with troops surrounding the town and shelling it from dawn until noon Saturday, according to reports from an AP team in Idlib.
Three Syrian soldiers died and more than 20 were injured when they tried to storm Idlib with heavy machine-gun fire and shelling, Bloomberg reported, citing the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
China and Russia last month vetoed a U.N. Security Council resolution calling on Assad to relinquish power.
In Cairo, Russian and Arab foreign ministers on Saturday called for an end to the bloodshed, but found difficulty in agreeing on how to go about ending the conflict, AFP reported.
Russia’s foreign minister reiterated his nation’s opposition to outside interference in Syria in Saturday’s meeting in Cairo, reported Bloomberg, citing a broadcast on Al Arabiya television.
