ALEPPO, Syria, Aug 14, (Agencies): Syria’s former prime minister, the highest profile government figure to defect, said Tuesday the regime was collapsing and controlled barely a third of the conflict-wracked country.

“The Syrian regime only controls 30 percent of Syria’s territory. It has collapsed militarily, economically and morally,” Riad Hijab told a news conference in the Jordanian capital Amman.

Hijab fled to Jordan last week, the latest in a string of defections from President Bashar al-Assad’s regime, which is becoming increasingly embattled as the 17-month conflict shows no signs of abating.
The United States, which has imposed a raft of tough sanctions to try to force Assad’s departure, reacted by lifting an asset freeze imposed on Hijab.

“The United States encourages other officials within the Syrian government, in both the political and military ranks, to take similarly courageous steps to reject the Assad regime and stand with the Syrian people,” Treasury official David Cohen said.

Western policymakers hope that a wave of defections will force the collapse of the autocratic government, ending a conflict that seems to be in stalemate with the international community deeply divided over what action to take.

In another blow, rebels claimed Monday they had shot down a Syrian fighter jet and captured its pilot as it battles escalating air attacks by government forces, particularly in the key northern city of Aleppo.
Assad was shaken last month when four top security officials at the heart of his Alawite inner circle were killed in a bomb attack in Damascus claimed by the rebel Free Syrian Army.

“Syria is full of officials and military leaders who are awaiting the right moment to join the revolt,” Hijab said, urging the fractured opposition to unite.

Although a number of senior figures have abandoned the regime, analysts say until military units begin to defect en masse, the Assad family and the top echelon of the military and security services will remain intact.

Hijab’s comments came as fresh fighting for control of key districts of Aleppo erupted while Syrian forces bombarded areas around Damascus and launched a new security operation in the capital, a human rights watchdog said.

Shelling
An AFP photographer said he heard heavy shelling of the southwestern district of Saif al-Dawla, which army forces advanced on Monday after recapturing the neighbouring area of Salaheddin last week.
Pro-government daily Al-Watan said the capture of Salaheddin was but a “first step” in the retaking of all rebel-held areas of the city.
The metropolis of some 2.7 million people — where communications have been cut for at least three days — is seen as pivotal to the outcome of the conflict, with some referring to it as Syria’s Benghazi, the Libyan city at the heart of the revolt that toppled Muammar Gaddafi’s regime.
In Damascus, security forces raided several districts after a major security operation on Monday, while several suburbs outside the capital were shelled, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
A total of 46 people were killed nationwide on Tuesday, it said.
The opposition issued a new appeal Monday for the international community to impose no-fly zones similar to those established during the conflict in Libya amid increasing air strikes by Syrian warplanes.
“We’ve seen a very troubling and despicable uptick in attacks from the air, perpetrated by the Syrian regime,” Pentagon spokesman George Little told reporters.
Asked if Washington was moving towards enforcing a possible no-fly zone, he said: “We plan for contingencies.”
With Assad increasingly under pressure, a top presidential aide was dispatched Tuesday to China, which has said it wants an immediate ceasefire and political dialogue to halt the bloodshed.
China and Russia are at odds with the West over how to end the fighting, after both traditional Syria allies vetoed UN Security Council resolutions.
China said it had backed the peace plan of outgoing peace envoy Kofi Annan, who announced his resignation earlier this month in the face of the continued violence and the deadlock among world powers.
UN humanitarian chief Valerie Amos also held talks with Syrian officials in Damascus on a regional visit “to draw attention to the deteriorating humanitarian situation” and discuss ways to boost relief efforts.
The conflict has killed more than 23,000 people since March last year, according to the Observatory, while the UN says more than one million people have been displaced and another 140,000 have fled to Syria’s neighbours.
Damascus also faces isolation by fellow Muslim states as the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation meets in the Saudi City of Mecca to discuss a recommendation for Syria to be suspended from the 57-nation body.
But Iran — Damascus’s closest ally — is vehemently opposed.
Meanwhile, Reporters Without Borders issued an open letter to the Syria opposition condemning a series of attacks on pro-government media which it said were “becoming the targets of abduction and murder with increasing frequency”.
“Such practices sadly resemble those used by the Assad regime against opposition journalists,” RSF said.
Rebels also came under fire on Monday after several grisly videos emerged purportedly showing opposition fighters rebels throwing the bodies of postal workers off a roof and a man’s throat being savagely cut.
No-fly zone
Defense Secretary Leon Panetta says plans to set up a no-fly zone over parts of Syria are “not on the front burner,” despite persistent calls from rebel forces there that they need the added protection from escalating regime airstrikes.
In an interview with The Associated Press on Monday, Panetta said he is confident the US could successfully enforce a no-fly zone over Syria, but doing so would require a “major, major policy decision” that has not yet been made.
“We have planned for a number of contingencies that could take place and one of those possible contingencies is developing a no-fly zone. But we’ve also pointed out difficulties in being able to implement that,” Panetta said. “It’s not on the front burner as far as I know.”
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said recently that Washington and Turkey are discussing a range of steps, and US officials say all options are on the table, including a no-fly zone over some parts of Syria. Rebel leaders have expressed frustration that the United States has limited its assistance to non-lethal aid. A no-fly zone is one in which outside nations prohibit flights over parts of another country and enforce it militarily.
The US and its NATO allies successfully enforced a no-fly zone over Libya last year, as rebels there made gains and eventually ousted dictator Muammar Gaddafi. Syria, however, has relatively modern air defenses that are far more plentiful and sophisticated than those in Libya. Syria buys its arms from Russia and is backed in its efforts to tamp down the rebels by Iran.
Three Hungarians are thought to have been kidnapped in Syria, Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s office said Tuesday.
“According to provisional information from the Hungarian anti-terrorism centre (TEK), three more Hungarian citizens have been kidnapped in Syria,” a statement said. It gave no further details.
In late April the Hungarian government said that two Hungarians working in Syria had been snatched by unidentified gunmen in the south-east of the restive country. In late July the government said they were alive but still captive.
More than 23,000 people have been killed in violence in Syria since the outbreak of a revolt in March last year, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Tuesday.
Abducted
A Syria-based reporter for Iran’s Arabic language television network Al-Alam has been abducted by rebels in the central Syrian city of Homs, the channel said on its website on Tuesday.
The journalist, named as Ahmad Sattouf, was taken by “armed terrorist groups” as he returned to his home in Homs, Al-Alam said, using the term the allied regimes in Iran and Syria use to designate Syria’s rebels.
The channel did not say when exactly Sattouf was abducted, but said he had been missing for “several days.”
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights separately said that Sattouf, a Syrian, had been abducted overnight Saturday-Sunday.
Al-Alam said that “the rebels also attacked and ransacked” its office in Homs.
Several foreign and Syrian journalists have been targeted in the conflict in Syria.
A domestic news chief for Syria’s state new agency SANA was said to have been murdered by rebels outside his home near the capital on Saturday, and an al-Qaeda linked group has claimed responsibility for the murder early this month of a presenter on state television.
Three Syrian state TV journalists were also reportedly abducted by rebels on Friday as they accompanied government troops close to the capital, and last week a bomb attack on state television headquarters wounded several people.
The head of the UN observer mission in Syria on Monday condemned attacks on the media.
Group
Lebanon’s militant Hezbollah group denied Tuesday that a man captured in the Syrian capital of Damascus and shown in a video released by the rebels was one of its members.
The video is the latest incident to reflect rising sectarian divisions in Syria’s vicious civil war, which has seen an increase in abductions of Shiite Muslims who many rebel fighters perceive as supporting President Bashar Assad. The regime is dominated by members of Assad’s Alawite minority sect, an off-shoot of Shiite Islam. Meanwhile, Sunnis, who are the majority in Syria, make up the backbone of the opposition.
The video purporting to show the captured Lebanese man followed another highly circulated rebel video Monday, showing what the rebels claimed was the downing of a Syrian MiG and armed men later holding the captured pilot who ejected. Syria acknowledged a pilot had bailed out of a disabled plane but blamed the crash on a technical malfunction.
In the video with the Lebanese captive, a man identifies himself as Hassane Salim al-Mikdad, and says he was one of 1,500 Hezbollah fighters sent to Syria on Aug 3. The video was said to have been released by rebels and aired by Arab satellite TV Al-Arabiya on Tuesday.
“Most of those who entered were snipers,” said the captive, whose face showed bruises as three masked gunmen stood behind him. A man, who could not be seen, was asking the hostage questions.
The captive then says that Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah gathered the men before they headed to Syria and told them that they should go to “support the Shiite regime and the Shiite army against Sunni gangs.”
The authenticity of the video could not be independently confirmed.
Hezbollah, a Shiite Muslim group, is a key backer of Assad’s regime. The Syrian opposition has repeatedly accused it of sending fighters to Syria, which Hezbollah denies.
Hezbollah issued a statement early Tuesday saying it “categorically denies that Mr Hassane Salim al-Mikdad is one of its members.”
There have been several attacks and abductions in Syria of Shiites from Lebanon, Iran and Iraq over the past months that were blamed on Syrian rebels. In May, Syrian rebels captured 11 Lebanese Shiites shortly after they crossed from Turkey on their way to Lebanon.
Earlier this month, 48 Iranians were captured by Syrian rebels near Damascus. Rebels claim the Iranians include members of Tehran’s Revolutionary Guard and were on a “reconnaissance mission” in the Syrian capital. Iran insists the men were on a religious pilgrimage.
The Lebanese are apparently held to try to pressure the government in Beirut to show greater support for the Syrian rebels - which is unlikely because of Hezbollah’s strong influence and backing of Assad.
Also, many Iraqi Shiites, streaming back to their homeland in the past month to escape the conflict in Syria, reported a rash of attacks against their community, apparently by Sunni rebel gunmen. In July, 23 Iraqi Shiites were killed in Syria, some of them beheaded, according to the Washington-based Shiite Rights Watch. In one gruesome case, the UN said an Iraqi family of seven was killed at gunpoint in their Damascus apartment.
The motives for the attacks on Iraqis are unclear. They may be revenge against any Iraqi because the Shiite-led Iraqi government is seen as siding with Assad.
In other violence across Syria on Tuesday, activists reported clashes and shelling in the northern city of Aleppo, southern province of Daraa, suburbs of Damascus and the northwestern region of Idlib.