Syria latest: top general defects, say activists

If the claims are true – and Syria has strongly denied them – then General Ali Habbab would be the most senior figure from Assad’s Alawi sect to defect. He had effectively been under house arrest since he resigned in protest at the crackdown against protestors in 2011.

Kamal al-Labwani from the Syria National Coalition told the Reuters news agency that Habib had managed to “escape the grip of the regime”, and had crossed the border into Turkey, although he had not formally joined the opposition.

“He will be a top source of information. Habib has had a long military career”, Labwani added. There has been no official confirmation that the general has left Syria, however, and Turkey’s foreign minister was unable to supply any information.

There have also been further claims of Assad’s involvement in last month’s chemical weapons attack on a suburb of Damascus.

Intelligence claims

German politicians were told on Wednesday that their intelligence services had intercepted a phone call from an official inside Hezbollah, suggesting that president Assad had made a mistake in ordering the attack – a claim which would suggest he was behind the atrocity.

Speaking on Channel 4 News, Dr Bouthaina Shaaban – a close adviser of President Assad – described the claims as “laughable”.

See the interview in full: Assad aide: 'al-Qaeda responsible for Syria's war'

Officials in Russia produced their own expert report claiming that Syrian rebels had also carried out attacks using chemical weapons earlier this year. The Russian Foreign Ministry alleged that a makeshift weapon used in an attack near the city of Aleppo was similar to ones made by rebels.

Russia’s evidence was being ignored, the ministry said, by nations keen to pin the blame squarely on the Syrian regime.

Cluster munitions

At the same time, Human Rights Watch claimed that the Syrian government had continued to use cluster bombs during the conflict, despite an international treaty to ban their use, production and trade, and to make sure that existing stockpiles are destroyed.

The organisation released a report on the global response to the Convention on Cluster Munitions, which is due to hold its fourth meeting next week. 112 countries have signed up, although Syria is not one of them.

Human Rights Watch said it had identified 152 separate locations inside Syria where it says Assad’s forces have used hundreds of cluster munitions from July 2012 until June of this year, attracting widespread public condemnation.

“Syria’s extensive cluster munition use is casting a sombre shadow over the real progress that the convention is making to put an end to the human suffering that these weapons cause”, said the report’s editor, Mary Wareham.

More than two million people have now fled the conflict, putting increasing pressure on the countries which have now become their temporary home. In a joint statement, officials from Iraq, Jordan, Turkey and Lebanon joined the UN to appeal for greater international help.

The UN’s high commissioner for refugees, Antonio Guterres, said Syria’s neighbours were paying a heavy price for the impact of Syria’s civil war.