Russia offers to broker Syria talks

DAMASCUS, Syria -- Russia and the Arab League proposed yesterday to broker talks between the Syrian opposition and president Bashar Assad's regime to try to resolve the country's civil war, while a government airstrike on a rebellious Damascus suburb killed at least 20 people.

The 23-month-old conflict, which has killed more than 70,000 people and laid waste to Syria's cities, has repeatedly defied international efforts to bring the parties together to end the bloodshed. The offer from Moscow, one of Assad's closest allies, suggested the regime could be warming to the idea of a settlement as it struggles to hold territory and claw back ground it has lost.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said the Kremlin and the Arab League are attempting to establish direct contact between the regime and the opposition. Sitting down at the negotiating table is the only way to end the conflict without irreparably damaging Syria, he said.

But the proposal got a cool reception from the opposition.

"We cannot agree to that," said Abdelbaset Sieda, a senior member of the Syrian National Coalition. "Assad and his group must go first. After that we can discuss with others in the regime who didn't share in the killing of our people."

The air raid yesterday hit the Damascus suburb of Hamouriyeh, killing at least 20 people, according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Earlier in the day, two mortars crashed into a sports complex in the normally calm neighborhood of Baramkeh in central Damascus, killing one soccer player and wounding three more.