BEIRUT — Syrian warplanes bombed Damascus suburbs and rebel-held areas in the country’s north Wednesday as the government blasted the European Union for endorsing a newly formed opposition coalition.
The raids struck several eastern suburbs of the Syrian capital and the strategic northern city of Maaret al-Numan, a key supply route linking Damascus and the commercial hub of Aleppo, said two activist groups. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and the Local Coordination Committees also reported violence elsewhere in Syria.
The state-run Syrian Arab News Agency said the army continued its pursuit of “terrorists” — a government term for rebel fighters — in the Damascus suburb of Arbeen, inflicting casualties on the enemy. The report also said attackers targeted a mosque in Daraya suburb.
Syria’s conflict began in March 2011 with an uprising against President Bashar Assad’s regime, inspired by other revolts in the region.
The crisis has since morphed into a civil war, with scores of rebel groups across the country fighting government troops. Nearly 40,000 people have been killed in the unrest, according to activists.
The civil war often has spilled over to Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan. Tens of thousands of Syrian refugees have fled to the three neighboring countries as violence in Syria rages, raising fears of a wider war in the volatile region.
Turkey’s government Wednesday requested deployment of NATO’s Patriot surface-to-air missiles to bolster its defenses along its border with Syria and prevent a spillover, NATO officials said.
Turkey first backed Assad in the uprising, but then called for his resignation as the opposition gained strength earlier this year, throwing its support behind the rebels. Ankara also has been retaliating for shelling and mortar fire from Syria. The first episode was Oct. 3, when shells from Syria struck a Turkish village near the Syrian border, killing two women and three children.
NATO doesn’t want to be drawn into the Syrian conflict, saying it would consider deploying the missiles purely to protect Turkey, a member country.
“Allies will discuss this without delay,” NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said on Twitter. In a separate statement, he said the deployment would augment Turkey’s air-defense capabilities and “would contribute to the de-escalation of the crisis along NATO’s southeastern border.”
The ambassadors of the 28 member states that make up the top council were expected to hold initial informal consultations later Wednesday.
Rasmussen said a joint team would visit Turkey next week to conduct a site survey for the possible deployment of the U.S.-built Patriots.
He also noted that the deployment would not mean imposing a no-fly zone over Syrian territory, a key demand of Syrian opposition groups.
Assad’s regime blames the revolt on a foreign conspiracy and accuses the United States, Turkey and other countries of funding, training and arming the rebels.
Damascus on Wednesday criticized the European Union for recognizing the newly formed Syrian opposition coalition as a legitimate voice of the Syrian people.
In a front-page editorial, the state-run newspaper Al-Thawra derided the coalition formed earlier this month as a “deformed” newborn baby, saying all possible “cosmetic surgeries do not bode well for the evolution of this monster.”
The EU’s 27 foreign ministers recognized the Syrian coalition during their monthly meeting this week.
The National Coalition of the Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces was formed Nov. 11 in Qatar under pressure from the United States for a stronger, more united opposition body to serve as a counterweight to the more extremist forces fighting Assad’s regime.
The endorsement was a major step forward in the West’s acceptance of the group, even as fast-moving events and fluid alliances have cast doubts on the direction of the rebellion.
The international support comes at a difficult time for the new coalition as Syria’s disparate opposition groups have been long plagued by divisions and infighting.
A group of extremist Islamist factions in Syria on Sunday rejected the new coalition, saying in a video statement the extremists have formed an “Islamic state” in the city of Aleppo to underline that they want nothing to do with the Western-backed bloc.
For the government, the Islamists are evidence of the militant and sectarian nature of the conflict. The rebels are mostly Sunni Muslims fighting against Assad’s regime, which is dominated by members of his minority Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shiite Islam.
Al-Thawra, the regime paper, said the meeting in Qatar failed to unite the opposition groups to “the extent that some [opposition] groups have announced the establishment of an Islamic State” in Syria.
Information for this article was contributed by Suzan Fraser, Slobodan Lekic, Don Melvin, Geir Moulson and Mike Corder of The Associated Press.
Front Section, Pages 7 on 11/22/2012