• Syria's embattled Assad appears on TV for first time in two weeks

    SANA via AFP - Getty Images

    A handout picture released Tuesday by the official Syrian Arab News Agency shows Syrian President Bashar Assad, right, meeting with Saeed Jalili, a top aide to Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in Damascus.

    NBC News and wire reports writes

    Updated at 8:31 p.m. ET: As Syrian President Bashar Assad appeared on television for the first time in two weeks on Tuesday, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said that the high-profile defection of the Syrian prime minister increased the urgency of planning for the ouster of Assad's regime.

    In South Africa's capital, Pretoria, Clinton said the United States and other countries needed to make sure that Syrian state institutions remain intact once Assad loses his grip on power.

    "The intensity of the fighting in Aleppo, the defections, really point out how imperative it is that we come together and work toward a good transition plan," Clinton said.

    "I do think we can begin talking about planning for what happens next: the day after the regime does fall. I am not going to put a timeline on it, I can't possibly predict it, but I know it's going to happen as do most observers around the world," Clinton said.


    Clinton also warned against "proxies or terrorist fighters" being sent in to join the 17-month-old conflict.

    The escalating war in Syria has increasingly divided the region along its sectarian faultline, pitting the mainly-Sunni rebels, who are backed by regional Sunni-led powers Turkey and the Gulf Arab states, against Assad's government that is backed by Shiite Iran.

    In a possible sign of increasing American pressure on Assad’s government, Clinton's remarks come a day after three U.S. senators warned about the risks of American failure to provide assistance to Syrian opposition fighters.

    Clinton also spoke a day after the defection of Prime Minister Riyad Hijab, the latest in a string of high-level departures from the Assad regime.

    US makes plans to keep post-Assad Syria intact

    TV appearance
    Assad appeared on Syrian state TV on Tuesday meeting with Iran's Supreme National Security Council in Damascus.

    Assad's absence had fueled rumors about his health, including a hoax Twitter message Monday that quoted Russia's ambassador to Damascus as saying Assad might have been killed.

    Russian officials quickly denied the report.

    Three US senators warn about risks of inaction in Syria

    In the week after a July 18 bombing that killed four members of his inner circle, Assad was shown twice in silent footage on television, swearing in a new defense minister and meeting military officials.

    Slideshow: The lives of Syrian rebels

    NBC News

    People resisting the army of President Bashar Assad in northern Syria cope with loss and prepare for fighting.

    Launch slideshow

    During Tuesday's Damascus meeting, Saeed Jalili, head of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, said Iran would not let its close partnership with the Syrian leadership to be shaken by the uprising or external foes.

    "Iran will not allow the axis of resistance, of which it considers Syria to be an essential part, to be broken in any way," Syrian television quoted Jalili as saying.

    The "axis of resistance" refers to Shiite Iran's anti-Israel alliance with Syria's rulers - from the Alawite faith which is an offshoot of Shiite Islam - and the Lebanese Shiite militant group Hezbollah, which fought a month-long war with Israel in 2006, with Iranian and Syrian support. 

    Damascus and Tehran have held Sunni Muslim Gulf Arab states and Turkey, all allies of the United States and European powers, responsible for the bloodshed in Syria by supporting the overwhelmingly Sunni Muslim rebels. Western powers sympathetic to the rebels are concerned that anti-Western Sunni Islamists could benefit from a victory for the anti-Assad forces. 

    Iran's Fars news agency said Jalili told Assad that Iran was prepared to provide humanitarian aid to Syria. 

    As estimated 18,000 people have been killed in the Syrian conflict, as rebels battle government forces in an attempt to wrest control from the Assad family's four-decade grip on power.

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    On a fence-mending visit to Turkey, Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi said he wanted to work with Ankara to resolve the crisis. Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan described as "worrying" a comment on Monday by Tehran's top general, who blamed Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Qatar for bloodshed in Syria. 

    Iran has expressed fears for more than 40 Iranians it says are religious pilgrims kidnapped by rebels from a bus in Damascus while visiting Shiite shrines. Salehi wrote to U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon seeking his help to free them. 

    Rebels say they suspect the captives were troops sent to help Assad. A rebel spokesman in the Damascus area said on Monday three of the Iranians had been killed by government shelling. He initially said the rest would be executed if the shelling did not stop but later said they were being questioned. 

    At least 262 al-Qaida militants are now operating in the border area between Turkey and Syria and rebels say another group of fighters are living in a tented camp just outside Aleppo, Syria's largest city. NBC's Richard Engel reports.

    Fighting rages in Aleppo
    On Tuesday, rebels trying to fight off an army offensive in Aleppo said they were running low on ammunition as government forces encircled their stronghold at the southern entrance to the country's biggest city.

    Assad has reinforced his troops in preparation for an assault to recapture rebel-held districts of Aleppo after repelling fighters from most of Damascus.

    Related: Official: Syria PM defects to anti-Assad opposition

    "The Syrian army is trying to encircle us from two sides of Salaheddine," said Sheikh Tawfiq, one of the rebel commanders, referring to the southwestern neighborhood which has seen heavy fighting over the last week.

    Mortar fire and tank shells exploded across the district early Tuesday, forcing rebel fighters to take cover in crumbling buildings and rubble-strewn alleyways.

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    Tanks have entered parts of Salaheddine and army snipers, using the cover of heavy bombardment, deployed on rooftops, hindering rebel movements.

    Slideshow: Behind Syrian rebel lines

    Machine guns operated by motorcycle brakes? Get a glimpse at the rebels fighting against Assad's forces in Syria's mountainous Jabal al-Zawiya area.

    Launch slideshow

    Another rebel commander, Abu Ali, said snipers at the main Saleheddine roundabout were preventing the rebels from bringing in reinforcements and supplies. He said five of his fighters were killed on Monday and 20 wounded.

    But rebels said they were still holding the main streets of Salaheddine which have been the frontline of their clashes with Assad's forces.

    Journalist: British militants took me hostage in Syria

    A fighter jet pounded targets in the eastern districts of Aleppo and artillery shelling could be heard in the early morning, an activist in Aleppo said.

    "Two families, about 14 people in total, were believed killed when a shell hit their home and it collapsed this morning," the activist said. The house was one street away from a school being used by rebels, he said.

    Reuters, The Associated Press and NBC News' staff contributed to this report.

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  • Bomb kills Syrian ministers at heart of Assad rule

    The defense minister, his deputy and a vice president were all killed in the blast but it is unclear if Syrian president Bashar al-Assad was nearby. NBC's Richard Engel reports.

    NBC News' Ayman Mohyeldin and wire services writes

    Updated at 3:31 p.m. ET: Three high-ranking officials in President Bashar Assad's regime were killed Wednesday in a Damascus bomb attack, state television reported, the most serious blow to Assad's high command in the country's 16-month-old rebellion. 

    Killed were:

    • Defense Minister Dawoud Rajha, 65, a former army general, was the country's most senior Christian government official. Assad appointed him to the post last year. 
    • Assad's brother-in-law Asset Shawkat, who was widely seen as a member of the president's inner circle. After years as deputy head and then chief of military intelligence, he was appointed deputy defense minister, a position that allowed him to wield power out of the limelight.
    • General Hassan Turkmani, Assad’s senior aide and head of the crisis unit that managed the ongoing conflict.

    SANA via Reuters, file

    Syrian Defence Minister Dawoud Rajha was the country's most senior Christian government official.

    The bomber -- said by a Reuters security source to be a bodyguard assigned to Assad's inner circle -- struck during a meeting attended by ministers and senior security officials in the Syrian capital as battles raged within sight of the presidential palace.

    The men form the core of a military crisis unit led by Assad to take charge of crushing the revolt which grew out of a popular protests inspired by Arab Spring uprisings that unseated leaders in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya.

    Within hours, Syrian State TV announced that Brig. Gen. Fahed Jassim el Friej would replace Rajha.

    Assad brother-in-law, Syria's shadowy enforcer

    A senior officer with the Free Syrian Army claimed responsibility for the high-level assassinations, a decisive moment in the conflict. Liwa al-Islam, an Islamist rebel group whose name means "The Brigade of Islam," also announced it was behind the blast. 

    The death of three of the regime's most senior operational commanders could seriously dent the effectiveness of Assad's army, as it fights battles across the capital.

    Bashar al-Assad's defense minister and brother in law were killed in an attack today, as the crisis in Syria unfolds. NBC's Richard Engel has the details of the escalating concerns.

    By nightfall, activists said Syrian army artillery had begun shelling the capital from the mountains that overlook it.

    The White House said on Wednesday that time is running out to find a peaceful solution to the violence in Syria and added it did not know the whereabouts of Assad.

    AFP - Getty Images, file

    A file picture taken on June 13, 2000 shows General Assef Shawkat, the brother-in-law of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, who was killed Wednesday.

    He did not appear in public or make a statement in the hours after the attack.

    Security sources said Assad was not at the meeting where the attack took place.

    "The window is closing, we need to take action in a unified way to help bring about the transition that the Syrian people so deserve," White House spokesman Jay Carney said at a news conference.

    Both the U.S. Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta and his British counterpart, Phillip Hammond, said Assad's regime must ensure that the vast Syrian chemical weapons stockpiles remain secure.

    "The situation in deteriorating," Panetta told reporters on Wednesday, NBC News reported.

    The U.N. Security Council put off a scheduled vote on a Syria resolution. President Barack Obama spoke with Russia's Vladimir Putin, who has acted as Assad's main protector in the diplomatic arena.

    A BBC News journalist reported that residents very close to the building where the attack took place said they had not heard the sound of explosion and gunfire, and had not seen injured being taken away. 

    Also on Wednesday, there were reports of explosions at the headquarters of the army's fourth division in Damascus, which is led by Assad's younger brother Maher, considered the second most powerful man in Syria.

    It was not clear whether those forces were being targeted.

    Photoblog: Who are the Syrian rebels?

    Syria's information minister denied on state television that any explosion had occurred at the base.  

    The capital has seen days of clashes pitting government troops against rebels. The fighting is an unprecedented challenge to government rule in the tightly controlled capital.

    For a third straight day, Syrian military fought rebels in the capital where activists say government tanks are fighting back. NBC's Ayman Mohyeldin reports.

    Activists in Damascus said by telephone that Republican Guards sealed off the Shami hospital in the capital after ambulances had brought casualties from the site of the explosion.

    In addition to weakening the army command, Wednesday's killings are bound to heighten a sense of paranoia and mistrust among Assad's top ministers and officials.


    The attack came as fighting erupted in major Damascus neighborhoods for a fourth day.

    The Syrian Military has been using helicopters and firing rockets against Free Syrian Army rebels on the outskirts of the city. Loud explosions were heard and the streets of Damascus were virtually deserted. 

    An army barracks near the "palace of the people," a huge Soviet-style complex overlooking the city from the western district of Dummar, came under rebel fire around 7:30 a.m. (12:30 a.m. ET), activists and a resident said.

    "I could hear the sound of small-arms fire and explosions are getting louder and louder from the direction of the barracks," Yasmine, who works as an architect, said by phone from Dummar.

    In a visit to a Syria refugee camp, British Foreign Minister William Hague listened to harrowing stories of the people who have been forced to flee their homes. Nearly 140 thousand people have crossed the border from Syria into neighboring Jordan to seek sanctuary from President Bashar al-Assad's deadly onslaught. NBC's John Ray reports.

    Video footage broadcast by activists purportedly showed a fire in the barracks overnight as a result of an attack by mortar rounds, but residents who saw the fire said they had not heard explosions to indicate it was a result of an attack.

    Dummar is a secure area containing many auxiliary installations for the presidential palace and the barracks is just hundreds of yards from the palace itself.

    Fighting in Sunni areas
    Fighting also erupted overnight in the southern neighborhoods of Asali and Qadam, and Hajar al-Aswad and Tadamun -- mainly Sunni Muslim districts housing Damascenes and Palestinian refugees.

    Syrian TV via AFP - Getty Images

    An image taken from Syrian TV shows security forces during armed clashes with gunmen the TV called "terrorists" (unseen) in the Al-Midan district of Damascus on Wednesday.

    Assad and the ruling elite belong to the minority Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shiite Islam that has dominated power in Syria since a 1963 coup.

    PhotoBlog: Behind Syrian rebel lines

    NBC News staff, Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report. 

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  • NBC's Ayman Mohyeldin answers Syria questions

    Opposition activists said the Syrian security forces opened fire on a funeral procession, killing at least 21 people on Monday. NBC's Ayman Mohyeldin reports from Damascus, Syria.

    Syria has been locked in a violent conflict between President Bashar Assad’s regime and civilian forces for over 14 months. The Assad regime’s crackdown on the popular uprising has left thousands dead and prompted international condemnation.  More than 200 U.N. observers are currently in Syria to monitor a cease-fire agreement which has been repeatedly violated by both sides since it took effect in April.

    Report: Syria rebels get better weapons as US quietly boosts support

    NBC News’ Ayman Mohyeldin is in Syria to report on the latest developments in the ongoing conflict. Ask him your questions during a LIVE Chat beginning at 2:30 p.m. ET. 

    This chat will be moderated. As many questions as possible will be answered.