Syria assails rebel town, admits sanctions hurting

Syrian forces tried to storm the rebel bastion of Rastan Wednesday under cover of heavy gunfire, shelling and rocket bombardment, reports said, as Damascus admitted sanctions were biting hard.

The rebel Free Syrian Army, meanwhile, denied it was behind the kidnapping of Lebanese Shiite pilgrims in the north, an incident adding to tensions in neighbouring Lebanon which is already divided between pro- and anti-Damascus camps.

There was no word on any Rastan casualties, but the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said 12 people were killed nationwide, including seven troops shot dead at Qalamun in Damascus province as they tried to defect to the rebellion.

Soldiers were trying to overrun Rastan for the second time in 10 days, with shells crashing into the town at the rate of "one a minute" at one stage, according to the Britain-based watchdog.

An activist told AFP that Free Syrian Army fighters were defending Rastan's entrances but that "regime forces are being strengthened with new deployments," including from the elite Republican Guard.

"Electricity has been cut off in Rastan, and water tanks have been shelled," said activist Abu Rawan. "There is also a severe lack of food because the market is closed and we can't bring food in from nearby villages."

Hours later, the activist said the army assault eased when a team of UN observers entered Rastan.

"The situation is calm now because the UN monitors have arrived" having heard the shelling, Abu Rawan told AFP, adding, however, "God protect us when they leave."

On May 14, 23 soldiers were killed in a failed assault on the town, which straddles the main highway linking the capital to the north and where rebels regrouped from the battered city of Homs.

Elsewhere, troops fired on protesters in Syria's second city Aleppo as about 1,500 people rallied against the regime, triggering armed clashes, said the Observatory, without providing any details on casualties.

Activists said lawyers and sympathisers with the revolt staged a sit-in at Aleppo's judicial complex to demand the release of political prisoners, as well as pay tribute to four students killed at a May 3 rally in the northern city.

The uprising against President Bashar al-Assad broke out with peaceful democracy protests in March 2011, prompting a fierce crackdown.

More than 12,600 people have been killed in the bloodshed, nearly 1,500 of them since a UN-backed truce took effect April 12, according to Observatory figures.

The bloodshed has persisted despite the ceasefire brokered by UN and Arab League envoy Kofi Annan, as well as previous diplomatic measures including several rounds of sanctions against Assad's regime.

Oil Minister Sufian Allaw admitted on Wednesday that punitive measures imposed by the West have cost Syria almost $4 billion and caused shortages in fuel products.

"The oil sector has lost almost $4 billion because of the unjust European and US sanctions, blocking exports and imports of oil and oil derivatives," he told a news conference.

The minister acknowledged "new difficulties" in meeting Syria's energy needs, especially for domestic gas.

"The measures taken by the EU and United States are behind this crisis. They want to put pressure on the Syrian people by widening the embargo," he said, adding: "We will also overcome the new difficulties."

Allaw said negotiations were under way with Russia for a long-term energy deal, while a Venezuelan vessel loaded with 35,000 tonnes of fuel oil docked in Syria this week and another was expected shortly.

The raging violence took a broader turn in the region after Lebanon's state news agency said Syrian rebels kidnapped 13 Lebanese Shiite Muslims as they were headed home by bus from a pilgrimage in Iran.

Lebanese Foreign Minister Adnan Mansur said the pilgrims were abducted by "a splinter group of the armed Syrian opposition", but added he expected their release "within hours."

The Free Syrian Army strongly denied involvement.

"The FSA is not at all responsible for the operation," Mustafa al-Sheikh, a high-ranking member of the rebel force, told AFP by telephone from Istanbul.

"This is an attempt to distort the image of the FSA," said Sheikh, the head of the group's military council. The kidnapping was "no doubt the work of the regime, which wants to sow chaos."

The opposition Syrian National Council also issued a call for the prompt release of the pilgrims, adding it too believed the regime could be involved in the kidnapping.

But Lebanese women pilgrims who arrived in Beirut on Wednesday said the kidnappers presented themselves as members of FSA. "They terrorised us," said one of them.

The case has triggered fears of sectarian tensions in Lebanon over the Syrian conflict.

Russia warned on Wednesday of the Syrian conflict spilling over into Lebanon, calling on all parties to avoid fresh unrest at all costs.

Similarly, Saudi King Abdullah has warned of "the gravity of the crisis and its potential to escalate into a sectarian conflict in Lebanon, dragging it back into the spectre of civil war."

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