[An Nahar] The army took a pounding at the hands of rebels in northern Syria, a watchdog said on Friday, as tensions between Damascus...The capital of Iran's Syrian satrapy...
and Ankara escalated over cargo seized from a Syrian passenger plane.
A rebel offensive killed more than 130 soldiers in two days, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
Forty-one soldiers were among at least 96 people killed nationwide on Friday, including 28 civilians, the watchdog said. On Thursday alone the army suffered 92 losses -- its highest daily total in the 19-month conflict.
With an average of 20 deaths per day, the army has lost about 10,000 soldiers, with at least an equal number maimed, a military hospital official told Agence La Belle France Presse, updating a toll of 8,000 he gave in August.
As fighting raged on the ground, a war of words between Syria and Turkey grew angrier after Ankara said military supplies were aboard an airliner it intercepted en route from Moscow to Damascus.
And Turkey scrambled a fighter jet on Friday after a Syrian helizaped the rebel-held town of Azmarin near the border, an official in Ankara told AFP.
The Syrian foreign ministry accused Turkish Prime Minister Recep Erdogan of lying when he said the jet intercepted on Wednesday was carrying "equipment and ammunition shipped to the Syrian defense ministry" from Russia.
Sergei Lavrov, Moscow's foreign minister, said the cargo was legal, in Russia's first remarks about the incident.
"This cargo is electrical technical equipment for radar stations, this is dual-purpose equipment but is not forbidden by any international conventions," Lavrov said.
"There were no weapons on board this plane, nor could there have been," he said in remarks posted on the Kremlin website.
Turkey's allies have warned of the risks embedded in the Syria conflict between the neighbors, which have exchanged cross-border fire amid fears the civil war could spark a regional conflagration.
Amid the growing alarm, German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle was due in NATO
...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Originally it was a mutual defense pact directed against an expansionist Soviet Union. In later years it evolved into a mechanism for picking the American pocket while criticizing the cut of the American pants...
partner Turkey on Saturday for talks with his counterpart Ahmet Davutoglu.
"It is important that no one pours oil on the fire. We are counting on moderation and de-escalation," said Westerwelle.
U.N.-Arab League
...an organization of Arabic-speaking states with 22 member countries and four observers. The League tries to achieve Arab consensus on issues, which usually leaves them doing nothing but a bit of grimacing and mustache cursing...
peace envoy Lakhdar Brahimi is also due in Istanbul on Saturday after talks with Soddy Arabia
...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in their national face...
's King Abdullah on Friday.
Ahmad Fawzi, Brahimi's front man, said Brahimi and the king agreed "on the dire need to stop the bloodshed and provide humanitarian aid to the more than 2.5 million Syrians" affected by the fighting, and more than 348,000 refugees in neighboring countries.
The Observatory said Thursday was one of the deadliest days since the anti-regime revolt erupted in March last year, with at least 240 people killed nationwide.
On Friday, regime warplanes attacked two buildings in the Idlib town of Maaret al-Numan, where intense fighting has raged since rebels overran it on Tuesday after a fierce 48-hour battle, said the Britannia-based watchdog.
Resupplying the army is "a fundamental aspect of the performance of the military," said Emile Hokayem, Middle East expert at the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London.
But he added that regime air supremacy was no longer decisive because the troops have "lost morale."
Observatory chief Rami Abdel Rahman added: "The regular army is fighting in hundreds of places. Before, the battle was concentrated in Homs (center), but today it has reached Aleppo
...For centuries, Aleppo was Greater Syria's largest city and the Ottoman Empire's third, after Constantinople and Cairo. Although relatively close to Damascus in distance, Aleppans regard Damascenes as country cousins...
(north), the coast, the Turkish border areas and the provinces of Damascus and Deir Ezzor (east)."
An AFP news hound said the rebels, by seizing a stretch of highway near Maaret al-Numan, were able to cut the route linking Damascus to embattled commercial hub Aleppo on Thursday, choking the flow of troops to the north.
Rebels on Friday also attacked a large air force post on the highway connecting Aleppo to Raqa province, further to the east, near Kweris military airport, the Observatory said.
"The rebels attacked the air force battalion after midnight and the festivities went on until dawn, but the rebels definitely did not gain control of the post," Abdel Rahman told AFP.
Despite the ongoing violence, anti-regime demonstrations were held across Syria after the weekly Moslem prayers.
In Aleppo, regime forces fired on protesters in the Halab al-Jadida district, wounding a number of demonstrators, the Observatory said.