BEIRUT: The Syrian government Wednesday called the formation of a new opposition group a “declaration of war” as rebel advances were reported on the country’s borders with Turkey and Israel, as well as the northern metropolis of Aleppo.
 
The rebels killed at least 18 government soldiers while overrunning a military post near the town of Ras al-Ain on the border with Turkey, according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
 
Syrian state television said a military unit staged an attack in the area “to break a [rebel] cordon surrounding one of our military units.”
 
That resulted in “the elimination of terrorists in the area and the destruction of their equipment and vehicles mounted with machine guns,” it added, referring to the rebels.
 
But a Syrian military source acknowledged that the rebels surrounded the base in the early morning, as several sources spoke of regime airstrikes on the position.
 
“The army managed to break through the chain of rebels surrounding the base and escape,” he told AFP on condition of anonymity. “After the rebels took full control the air force flattened the base.”
 
Turkey’s defense minister, Ismet Yilmaz, warned of retaliation if any Syrian aircraft violate its airspace amid a third day of airstrikes against the rebels in Ras al-Ain.
 
“The necessary response will be given to Syrian planes and helicopters that violate our border,” Yilmaz said.
 
Turkey’s Anadolu news agency and other Turkish media said several villages have been evacuated to protect residents from any spillover of fighting.
 
In the south of the country, the rebels control almost all the villages near the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, Israel’s defense minister said.
 
During a tour of the Golan Heights, Ehud Barak gave a scathing assessment of Syrian President Bashar Assad’s forces and said Israel would remain “vigilant and alert.”
 
“Almost all of the villages, from the foot of this ridge to the very top, are already in the hands of the Syrian rebels,” said Barak, who was accompanied by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. “The Syrian army is displaying ever-diminishing efficiency.”
 
In recent days, Israeli troops have fired into Syria twice after apparently stray mortar shells flew into Israel-held territory.
 
Damascus said that its recent forays near the Golan were conducted with the knowledge of United Nations monitors.
 
“Extremist forces entered the demilitarized zone, occupied two or three villages and threatened to kill the inhabitants,” Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal Miqdad told AFP, estimating the number of insurgents at around 600.
 
“We consulted the UNDOF [United Nations Disengagement Observer Force] mission, who said: ‘Yes, you can solve the problem.’”
 
“We respect the disengagement agreement and we are bound to it but our patience will not last for centuries and this should be known to Israel,” the diplomat added.
 
“I think the U.N. should help us to do this work rather than allow terrorist forces like Al-Qaeda to take control of people in this part of Syria, and that’s just what happened,” he said.
 
A witness and a security source told AFP that rebels also made a strategic advance in the city of Aleppo, taking a regime checkpoint.
 
On the diplomatic front, Syria and its ally Russia slammed the formation of the National Coalition of Syrian Opposition and Revolutionary Forces, announced in Doha Sunday.
 
“The Doha meeting was a declaration of war. These people [the opposition] don’t want to solve the issue peacefully through the mechanisms of the UN,” Miqdad said. “We read the Doha document and they reject any dialogue with the government.”
 
France has recognized the National Coalition as the legitimate representative of the Syrian people and President Francois Hollande invited coalition head Ahmad Moaz Khatib to Paris.
 
Hollande spoke to Khatib by telephone and urged him to “do all he can to consolidate the coalition’s authority and credibility inside Syria and move rapidly toward establishment of a provisional government,” the statement said.
 
The question of arming the rebels would now “have to be necessarily reviewed not only in France but in all countries which will recognize this government,” Hollande added. Reacting to France’s recognition of the National Coalition, Miqdad said: “This is an immoral position. They are supporting killers, terrorists and they are encouraging the destruction of Syria.”
 
Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev of Russia also criticized countries siding with the opposition and insisted Moscow was staying neutral. “We don’t support anybody in this conflict, neither President Assad nor the rebels ... but unfortunately, the point of view of some states is more one-sided,” he said.
 
The Arab League and Western countries have embraced the new opposition grouping but stopped short of extending it recognition as the Syrian people’s legitimate representative, a stance echoed by U.S. President Barack Obama.
 
“We’re not yet prepared to recognize them as some sort of government-in-exile, but we do think that it is a broad-based representative group,” Obama told reporters at the first news conference after his re-election.
 
Obama said the U.S. wanted to make sure the group “is committed to a democratic Syria, an inclusive Syria, a moderate Syria.”
 
Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov played down the importance of the new opposition group.
 
“There was no unification of all the opposition,” he said, charging that the National Coalition only “unified the groups represented in Doha.”
 
Violence throughout the country claimed at least 50 lives, according to activist groups, following Tuesday’s death toll of 205 people, according to the Observatory – 55 were rebel soldiers and 49 were government troops.