Top Syrian diplomat in London defects

BEIRUT — Syria’s top diplomat in London said he could no longer represent the regime and defected Monday, and civilians have fled the commercial hub of Aleppo in droves during the 10 days of fierce battles between rebels and government forces.

Britain’s Foreign Office said that Khaled al-Ayoubi, the charge d’affaires, told officials that he wasn’t willing to represent the regime any longer, the latest high-profile defection of a diplomat from Syria over the bloody crackdown on the opposition since March 2011.

Fighting is heating up in Aleppo, Syria’s largest city, with 3 million people. The U.N. said 200,000 Syrians have left over the past 10 days as the government trains its mortars, tanks and helicopter gunships on the neighborhoods seized by the rebels.

“I am extremely concerned by the impact of shelling and use of tanks and other heavy weapons on people in Aleppo,” Valerie Amos, the top U.N. official for humanitarian affairs, said in a statement late Sunday. “Many people have sought temporary shelter in schools and other public buildings in safer areas,” she added. “They urgently need food, mattresses and blankets, hygiene supplies and drinking water.”

Amos said U.N. agencies and the Syrian Red Crescent are working together on supplying those affected by the fighting with blankets and humanitarian supplies, but many remain out of their reach because of the violence.

Aleppo is Syria’s largest city and commercial hub with about 3 million inhabitants.

Aleppo is about 30 miles away from the Turkish border and some of those fleeing the city are headed for Turkey, where tens of thousands of Syrians have already found refuge during the 17-month uprising against authoritarian President Bashar Assad’s rule.

Turkey is deploying more troops to the border, sending tanks, armored combat vehicles, more missile launchers and infantry troops, the state run Anadolu agency reported.

Greece has responded by quadrupling the number of guards on its borders with Turkey and boosting other defenses in part because of a potential influx of Syrian refugees, a government minister said Monday.

Greek Public Order Minister Nikos Dendias said 1,800 additional officers had been ordered to the border with Turkey. Greece currently has about 600 border guards in the area, according to the Panhellenic Association of Border Guard Officers.

Syrian state media had reported the army had “purged” Aleppo’s southwestern neighborhood of Salaheddine and inflicted “great losses” upon the rebels in one of the first districts they took control of in their bid to seize the city.

Activists, however, disputed these claims and just described another day of fierce shelling of certain areas, backed up by the occasional foray on the ground.

Gen. Babacar Gaye, the head of the United Nations Observer Mission in Syria, expressed concern over the ongoing violence in Aleppo, noting that “helicopters, tanks and artillery are being used.”

Gaye, whose mission is to monitor a cease-fire that has never been observed by either side, visited the town of Rastan, just outside the city of Homs in central Syria, which has witnessed heavy fighting. Footage from his trip showed a devastated town with burnt-out tanks by the side of the road and many destroyed buildings.

Syrian tanks attacked a convoy carrying the head of the U.N. observer mission, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said Monday.

“Yesterday, the convoy of Lt. Gen. Babacar Gaye was attacked by armed tanks. Fortunately, there were no injuries,” Ban told reporters. He said a dozen armored vehicles used by the observers have been destroyed by blasts and shelling.

The U.N. observer mission’s latest 30-day mandate is due to expire in August. The mission has largely been sidelined by the violence.

Meanwhile, an Al-Jazeera cameraman said a colleague was wounded while they were covering clashes in the northern Syrian province of Aleppo.

Hakan Bayginer said Ankara-based Al-Jazeera correspondent Omar Khashram was injured Monday after a mortar round fell near their car. He said Khashram was injured by shrapnel in areas unprotected by his flak jacket. Bayginer was traveling in the same car but escaped unharmed.

Bayginer said Khashram, who worked for Al-Jazeera’s Arabic service, was taken to Turkey for treatment and was conscious and in stable condition.

Al-Ayoubi, the Syrian diplomat in London, is the fourth high-ranking envoy to defect. He was preceded by the charge d’affaires in Cyprus; her husband, a diplomat in the United Arab Emirates; and by the ambassador to Iraq.

A Foreign Office spokesman said al-Ayoubi was staying in a safe location in the United Kingdom and was in contact with British officials. His departure leaves five staff members at the embassy.

Turkey also reported that the deputy head of security for Syria’s Latakia region, a regime stronghold, had defected as well.

The brigadier general was among a group of 12 Syrian officers who crossed into Turkey late Sunday, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to reporters. His defection raised to 28 the number of generals who have left for Turkey since the start of the 17-month-old uprising.

Information for this article was contributed by Suzan Fraser, Zeina Karam, Paisley Dodd, Peter James Spielman and Derek Gatopoulos of The Associated Press.