Syria opposition launches national council

BEIRUT -- Syrian dissidents formally established Sunday a broad-based national council designed to overthrow President Bashar Assad's regime, which they accused of pushing the country to the brink of civil war. Syrians took to the streets in celebration, singing and dancing.

In a restive northern area, meanwhile, gunmen killed the 21-year-old son of Syria's top Sunni Muslim cleric in an ambush, the state-run news agency reported.

The cleric, Grand Mufti Ahmad Badreddine Hassoun, is considered a close supporter of Assad's regime and has echoed its claims that the unrest in Syria is the result of a foreign conspiracy.

The announcement of the Syrian National Council at a news conference in Istanbul, Turkey, appeared the most serious step yet to unify a fragmented opposition. It follows five days of intense battles between the military and army defectors in the country's central region that raised the specter of all-out armed conflict.

Prominent Syrian opposition figure Bourhan Ghalioun, who read out the founding statement of the SNC at the news conference in Istanbul, accused the regime of fomenting sectarian strife in Syria to maintain its grip on power.

"I think that this [Assad] regime has completely lost the world's trust," he said. "The world is waiting for a united Syrian [opposition] that can provide the alternative to this regime, so that they can recognize it," he added.

Syria's volatile sectarian divide means that an armed conflict could rapidly escalate in scale and brutality. The Assad regime is dominated by the Alawite minority, an offshoot of Shia Islam, but the country is overwhelmingly Sunni Muslim.

The opposition movement has until now focused on peaceful demonstrations, although recently some protesters have been reported to have taken up arms to defend themselves against military attacks. Army defectors have been fighting government troops.

Yesterday's killing of the mufti's son took place in the Saraqeb region of Idlib province as he left the university where he studied. He was shot in the chest and kidney and died of his injuries. The news report gave no details on who might have been behind the killing.

In forming a national council, the Syrians are following in the footsteps of Libyan rebels, whose National Transitional Council has won international recognition and is the governing body running the country.