Assad, in interview, defends regime

BEIRUT -- In his first interview since December, Syrian President Bashar Assad insisted his regime is fighting back against foreign mercenaries who want to overthrow him, not innocent Syrians aspiring for democracy.

The interview with Russian TV showed Assad is still standing his ground, despite widespread international condemnation over his deadly crackdown on dissent in the yearlong uprising.

"There are foreign mercenaries, some of them still alive," Assad said in an interview broadcast yesterday on Russian state news channel Rossiya-24. "They are being detained and we are preparing to show them to the world."

Assad also cautioned against meddling in Syria, warning neighboring nations that have served as transit points for contraband weapons being smuggled into the country that "if you sow chaos in Syria you may be infected by it yourself."

He did not elaborate, but rebels and anti-regime activists say Syrian forces have mined many of the smuggling routes where weapons flow into Syria, mainly from neighboring Turkey and Lebanon.

Assad, who inherited power from his father in 2000, still has a firm grip on power in Syria some 14 months into a revolt that has torn at the country's fabric and threatened to undermine stability in the Middle East.

The UN estimated in March that the violence has killed more than 9,000 people, and hundreds more have been killed since then as a revolt that began with mostly peaceful calls for reform transforms into an armed insurgency.

A group known as the Free Syrian Army is determined to bring down the regime by force of arms, targeting military checkpoints and other government sites.

A UN observer team with more than 200 members has done little to quell the bloodshed, and some even have been caught up in the violence themselves.

A northern town was evacuated of six observers yesterday, a day after a roadside bomb hit their convoy and left them stranded overnight with rebel forces.

Assad, 46, denies that there is a popular will behind the uprising, saying foreign extremists and terrorists are driving the revolt.