DAMASCUS/BEIRUT/ANKARA: Regime forces launched a fierce assault on the rebel bastion of Rastan in central Syria Wednesday, raining shells on the town before launching a ground attack, monitors and activists said.
 
There was no immediate word on casualties at Rastan but the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said seven people were killed elsewhere in the country.
 
Soldiers were trying to storm Rastan under the cover of heavy gunfire, shelling and rocket bombardment, the Britain-based watchdog said, adding that at one stage shells smashed into the town at a rate of “one a minute.”
 
An activist reached by Skype told AFP that Free Syrian Army fighters were defending Rastan’s entrances but that “regime forces are being strengthened with new deployments,” including from the elite Republican Guard.
 
“Electricity has been cut off in Rastan, and water tanks have been shelled,” said activist Abu Rawan.
 
“There is also a severe lack of food because the market is closed and we can’t bring food in from nearby villages.”
 
Besieged by regime forces for several months, Rastan is home to a large number of rebel fighters, according to opposition sources. Most residents have fled after months of fighting.
 
On May 14, 23 regular troops were killed in a failed assault.
 
Elsewhere, troops fired on protesters in Aleppo as about 1,500 people rallied against the regime, triggering armed clashes, said the Observatory, without providing any details on casualties.
 
Activists said lawyers and sympathizers with the revolt staged a sit-in at Aleppo’s judicial complex to demand the release of political prisoners, as well as pay tribute to four students killed at a May 3 rally in the northern city.
 
The uprising against President Bashar Assad broke out with peaceful democracy protests in March 2011, prompting a fierce crackdown.
 
More than 12,600 people have been killed in the bloodshed, nearly 1,500 of them since a United Nations-backed truce took effect April 12, said the Observatory.
 
Speculation was rife Wednesday among Syrian anti-regime activists over the alleged “killing” of Assad’s brother-in-law, who is also Syria’s deputy defense minister.
 
Assef Shawkat, former head of military intelligence, was poisoned, according to anti-regime activists. The authorities in Damascus could not be reached for comment and have not responded publicly to the claim.
 
According to anti-regime activists, Shawkat was being buried Wednesday in his hometown, which they identified as Madhale.
 
Several activists quoted by Saudi-owned Al-Arabiya television said black flags were flying there in mourning.
 
On their Syrian Revolution Facebook page, anti-regime activists wrote that: “Assef Shawkat is being buried right now in his home town Madhale ... God curse him. He was poisoned.”
 
They said Shawkat’s body was transported to a hospital near his hometown that was emptied of patients Tuesday.
 
Speculation over Shawkat’s fate first emerged on May 20 when Al-Jazeera and Al-Arabiya television broadcast an amateur video showing a man claiming responsibility on behalf of a rebel group for killing six regime stalwarts.
 
They included Shawkat, Interior Minister Mohammad al-Shaar, Defense Minister Daoud Rajha, national security chief Hisham Bakhtiar and Hasan Turkmani, vice presidential assistant.
 
Turkmani appeared on state television this week to dismiss the reports, while Shaar denied them in a telephone interview, accusing Al-Jazeera and Al-Arabiya of “lies and slander.”
 
However, Shawkat has not made any public appearance or personally denied the reports.
 
According to Peter Harling, an expert on Syria with the Brussels-based International Crisis Group, the reports are “essentially unconfirmed for now.”
 
“What is interesting is this story’s success, regardless of its factual grounding,” Harling told AFP. “A month ago, Syrians would not have believed, conveyed, invested in such news and it would not have spread.”
 
“The regime then appeared particularly strong. Now there is a sense the armed opposition is on the offensive.”
 
A member of the inner circle of former Syrian President Hafez Assad and his son Bashar, Shawkat rose quickly through the ranks of power after he married the late leader’s only daughter, Bushra, in the 1990s.
 
Separately, a Turkish minister said Wednesday Syria was allowing Kurdish rebels who are fighting Turkish forces to establish bases in Syrian territory.
 
Interior Minister Idris Naim Sahin said Turkish intelligence indicates that Syria is allowing rebels to establish themselves in areas close to the Turkish border. Some Kurdistan Workers’ Party rebels have even taken charge of running small Syrian towns, Sahin claimed, describing the development as an apparent act of revenge against Turkey.
 
Turkey has reacted to the popular uprising in Syria by urging Assad to step down, accepting some 23,000 Syrian refugees in Turkey, and playing host to civilian and military members of the Syrian opposition.
 
Kurdish rebels have long used bases in northern Iraq in order to launch attacks in Turkey, but Syria had stopped allowing that.
 
“Terrorist groupings that were not there a year ago have been spotted,” Sahin told private NTV television.
 
“Syria is turning a blind eye to terrorist groupings in areas close to the border to put Turkey in difficulty and perhaps as a way to take revenge on Turkey.”