Annan quits as Syria envoy; war intensifies over Aleppo

Speaking to reporters in Geneva,Annan cited finger-pointing,name-calling in the 15-nation Security Council as one of the reasons for his decision to step down. There may be other plans,other approaches that may work quite effectively, he said,adding that at this stage the focus should still be on a political transition which means President Assad will have to leave sooner or later.

In Syria,rebels on Thursday bombarded a military airbase in Aleppo using a tank captured from government troops as activists reported the regime has launched new raids against opposition fighters near the capital Damascus,killing dozens.

It was one of the first indications the rebels are starting to deploy the heavy weapons they have managed to capture in the past weeks from the Syrian army. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the rebel-seized tank shelled the Menagh military airport outside Aleppo,which the regime has used to launch attacks on rebel positions in the surrounding area.

The incident represents an escalation in the 17-month-old uprising in which an estimated 19,000 have died,since the rebels now can start trading tank shells with the heavily-armed regime that also has fighter jets.

The rebels have also been buoyed by new announcements of assistance by the US,which said on Thursday it was earmarking an additional $12 million for Syrian civilians,on top of the extra $10 million in non-lethal assistance it promised the day before to the opposition.

Rebel forces in northern Syria attacked the countrys largest city of Aleppo two weeks ago and have captured several neighborhoods,which they have since held despite ground and air assaults by the government.

With its proximity to rebel-friendly Turkey just to the north,Aleppo has enormous strategic importance to the opposition and if the rebels were able to capture and hold it,it could form kernel of a wider rebel-controlled zone.

If Aleppo falls,then automatically we are going to establish headquarters at the presidential palace, said Syrian opposition leader Burhan Ghalioun,late on Wednesday in Paris. Nothing would stand in the way of the Free Syrian Army. Hama and Homs,to the outskirts of Damascus,have in large parts been liberated.

In the capital Damascus,the regime on Thursday announced a string of raids against rebels in neighborhoods on the southern edge of the city the night before,killing and arresting a number of terrorists,as the government refers to rebels.

At least 20 people were killed by raids in the Yalda suburb on Wednesday night,in the south,while the Observatory reported that 47 people had been killed in the Jdaidat Artouz neighborhood to the southwest.

In another development,the Arab countries have dropped a demand that Syrian President Bashar Assad resign in the latest draft of a symbolic UN General Assembly resolution that faces a Friday vote.