lakhdar Brahimi, the UN-Arab League envoy, has expressed hope, after holding talks in Beijing with Yang Jiechi, Chinese foreign minister, that China will play an active role in helping end the violence in Syria. Speaking in the Chinese capital on Wednesday, Brahimi said he hoped "China can play an active role in solving the events in Syria" without elaborating further. Yang thanked Brahimi for his work and said he hoped their discussions - their third in two months - would promote "mutual understanding" and "the appropriate handling of the Syrian issue". China, an ally of Syria, has along with Russia exercised its veto in the UN Security Council to block resolutions aimed at putting more pressure on Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Brahimi, who succeeded former UN chief Kofi Annan after he quit over what he called a lack of international support, is due to present new proposals for resolving the conflict to the UN Security Council next month. His two-day visit to China came after he met Russia's foreign minister in Moscow and described the conflict as going from bad to worse. Damascus air raids Nineteen months after protests against the Assad regime erupted last year, clashes between rebels and the regular army are raging in many parts of Syria. The opposition says more than 32,000 people have been killed. Hundreds of thousands have fled to neighbouring countries.
Activists reported fighting and an air raid in the Damascus suburb of Douma on Tuesday. The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) said 18 people were killed by the air raid and tank fire. Video posted online purporting to show the aftermath showed a deep, rubble-filled crater and walls collapsed in the blast. Missiles fired from a fighter jet also struck the Jobar neighbourhood of Damascus, the SOHR said. Separately, Syria's state news agency said an "armed terrorist group" assassinated a high-ranking air force general. Major-General Abdullah Mahmoud al-Khalidi was shot while getting out of his car in the Rukn al-Din neighbourhood in Damascus, the report said. Rebels claimed responsibility for the killing.
