Syria: More blasts, more talks

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said two explosives-laden cars had detonated near an officers' club inside a military camp in Daraa, near the border with Jordan.

Syria's state news agency SANA did not report a military target and announced only that seven people had died in three blasts in Daraa. One device, SANA reported, had gone off in a busy commercial street. It also said that the army had destroyed a ship on the Euphrates that was allegedly carrying rebel arms and ammunition.

Differences remained evident on Saturday at the weeklong opposition talks in Doha, Qatar, with Ahmad Ramadan, a senior official with the Syrian National Council, saying he expects the meeting to end with only a "principles of cooperation" statement.

Ramadan said the Council rejected any attempt to "cancel" the SNC's leading role in the Syrian opposition under a US-backed structure that would include other dissidents.

That proposal envisages a transitional government, a military council to oversee rebel groups and a judiciary in rebel areas, with the SNC's role reduced to 40 percent of a 60-seat assembly.

The Council's new president, exiled geographer and Christian George Sabra, said the SNC had "started an open dialogue with our brothers and looked at their initiative."

"We need military equipment - rockets against tanks and airplanes to protect ourselves," Sabra added. "We hope we will get something soon."

Sabra rejected suggestions that the SNC was dominated by the Muslim Brotherhood, a moderate Islamist group whose affiliates have come to power in Egypt and Tunisia.

"This is an accusation we hear every day," Sabra said. He added that the SNC would appoint some women to the general secretariat to make up for their failure to win seats.

Kurdish towns vacated

The Britain-based Observatory, meanwhile, said Kurdish residents had convinced forces loyal to the government of President Bashar Assad to leave two towns in northeastern Syria near the border with Turkey after the rebel seizure of an adjacent border town Ras al-Ain on Friday.

Residents continued to flee into Turkey to shelter in camps, saying they feared reprisal attacks by Assad's fighter planes and helicopters on Ras al-Ain.

The Observatory named the towns as Derbassiye and Tall Tamr and announced that residents were being backed by a Kurdish militia of the Democratic Union Party.

Regime forces had also vacated an adjacent town, Amuda, the Observatory said.

Kurds in Syria have largely tried to steer clear of the violence triggered by the 20-month uprising against Assad.

ipj/mkg (Reuters, AFP)