Saudi- King seeks end to Syria carnage 

(MENAFN - Arab News) Custodian of the Two Holy Mosque King Abdullah held talks yesterday with international peace envoy Lakhdar Brahimi on ways to end the bloodletting in Syria, SPA reported.

"The king and the envoy discussed the current situation in Syria and the ways that guarantee an end to all violence, bloodshed, terrorizing of innocent people and violations of human rights in Syria," the SPA reported.

The king's adviser and special envoy Prince Muqrin, Deputy Foreign Minister Prince Abdul Aziz bin Abdullah also attended the meeting.

Ahmad Fawzi, Brahimi's spokesman, said in a statement they agreed the crisis was deteriorating and causing "untold suffering for the Syrian people."

"They agreed on the dire need to stop the bloodshed and provide humanitarian aid to the more than 2.5 million Syrians inside the country, who were affected by the fighting, and the over 348,000 refugees registered in neighboring countries," he said.

Meanwhile, the Syrian Army took a pounding at the hands of fighters in northern Syria, a watchdog said yesterday, as tensions between Damascus and Ankara escalated over cargo seized from a Syrian passenger plane.

A rebel offensive killed more than 100 soldiers in two days, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said, including 14 soldiers in an attack on an army post in southern Daraa province and two others elsewhere.

With an average of 20 deaths per day, the army has lost about 10,000 soldiers, with at least an equal number wounded, an official told AFP.

Turkey scrambled a fighter jet yesterday after a Syrian helicopter attacked the rebel-held town of Azmarin near the border.