Syria urges mass voter turnout as conflict continues

Syrian authorities Sunday announced the death in combat of a general near Damascus, while urging a mass turnout in a June 3 presidential election branded a "farce" by the opposition.

General Hussein Isaac died of wounds suffered in fighting at Mleiha, a key battleground southeast of the capital, making him one of the few top-ranking officers whose death has been announced during Syria's three-year war.

The air defence forces' headquarters is located in Mleiha, a key flashpoint in fighting around the capital.

The air force has also been deployed in the regime's war against rebels seeking to overthrow President Bashar al-Assad, whose regime brands the uprising a foreign-backed "terrorist" plot.

For more than a month, the army backed by Lebanon's Shiite Hezbollah has been battling to recapture Mleiha, a strategic rebel bastion under army siege and almost constant bombardment.

While the army is in firm control of Damascus, rebels hold a number of towns and villages on the outskirts, despite a suffocating blockade and frequent air strikes and shelling.

Syria's war broke out in March 2011 with protests demanding political change, before morphing into a bloody insurgency after Assad's regime unleashed a massive crackdown.

Despite the war, the regime is to stage a presidential election next month in the areas under its control.

The exiled opposition has dismissed the election as a "farce", while the United States has branded it a "parody of democracy".

Parliament speaker Mohammed al-Lahham on Sunday urged Syrians to flock to the polls.

"Whoever abstains from exercising his constitutional duty would be turning his back on his national obligation at a time when his nation is calling on him," he said.

'Illegal elections'

However, a state-tolerated opposition group called for an election boycott "in solidarity" with Syrians unable to vote.

"We hope that all the Syrian people will be able to exercise their right to boycott this election," said the group, set up in September 2011 after the start of the uprising.

The movement Building the Syrian State said the election was "illegal" because half of the population had been displaced.

The polls would only lead to another "authoritarian regime" because of the "absolute powers" granted to the presidency under the constitution, it said.

Assad, running for a third seven-year term against two virtual unknowns, is expected to stroll to victory in the poll.

Lahham called for unspecified measures "to guarantee a climate of security and peace" during the vote.

While the army and air force pound rebel areas on a daily basis, rebel attacks on government-held areas, especially in Damascus and Aleppo, northern Syria, have been on the rise .

At least 35 people were killed during operations allegedly carried out across Syria on Sunday by forces loyal to the regime of President Bashar al-Assad, according to opposition activists. 

Operations involving heavy weaponry killed eight in the suburbs of the capital Damascus, seven in Hama, six in Aleppo, six in Daraa, five in Deir-ez Zor, as well three in the cities of Homs, Tartus and Idlib, according to the London-based Syrian Network for Human Rights, which tracks civilian and opposition casualties.

 Rights groups say tens of thousands of people in Syria are being arbitrarily held in jails where torture and ill-treatment are systematic.

Scores of media activists opposed to the Assad regime have been killed or jailed over the course of the Syrian conflict.

More than 150,000 people have been killed since it erupted and nearly half of Syria's population has been displaced by the violence.

Syria Islamists pledge 'state of law, freedom, justice'

Syria's biggest Islamist rebel groups promised Saturday "a state of law, freedom and justice."

"The Syrian revolution is committed to the respect of human rights that are also encouraged by our religion," said the covenant, which all but revoked a November denunciation of democracy by the Islamic Front.

"The Syrian revolution is a revolution based on morals and values with the objective of achieving freedom, justice and security (for) the entire Syrian society, with its diverse multi-ethnic and multi-sectarian social fabric," added the statement, posted by the Islamic Front on Twitter.

The document was co-signed by the Ajnad al-Sham Islamic Union, the Army of Mujahideen, Failaq al-Sham and the Furqan brigades -- all important rebel groups.

It also said the revolt's goal is "to overthrow the current regime and all its symbols.... and to bring them to justice in fair trials, (steering) away from any acts of revenge or retaliation."

The rebels said they are committed to fighting both Assad's regime and the extremist Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), which has been in open war with rival opposition factions since January.

It said decisions should be "entirely Syrian", rejecting militant bids to influence the revolt.

Iran recruiting Afghans to fight in Syria

Meanwhile the Wall Street Journal reported late Thursday that Iran is recruiting Afghan refugees to fight in Syria.

In exchange, Iran is offering them stipends of $500 a month and residency permits, the paper said, quoting Afghans and Western officials.

Details of the recruitment drive by the elite Revolutionary Guards were posted this week on a blog catering to Afghan refugees in Iran, the Journal said.

It said this was confirmed by the office of Grand Ayatollah Mohaghegh Kabuli, an Afghan religious leader in the Iranian Shiite holy city of Qom.

The paper quoted a Western official in Iran as saying recruiting Afghans was part of a strategy to send poor foot soldiers to the battle front.

The aim was to reduce casualties among Iranian Guards personnel and Lebanon's Hezbollah militia, a close Tehran ally, the official said.

Tehran strongly denies its forces are directly involved in the Syrian conflict but Hezbollah publicly acknowledged in April last year that it has been fighting alongside Assad's troops.

Like Hezbollah and most Iranians, the Afghan recruits are Shiites and support Assad, whose Alawite faith is an offshoot of Shiite Islam, the Journal said.