Syrian National Council (SNC) new chief George Sabra looks on after the election of the executive committee during the SNC General Assembly in Doha, Qatar, yesterday.
DOHA: Veteran dissident George Sabra, a Christian former communist, was elected president of the Syrian National Council opposition bloc at a meeting here yesterday. The SNC’s 41-member general secretariat, itself newly elected, chose Sabra, who garnered 28 votes, as part of efforts to revamp the group working to oust President Bashar Al Assad. Sabra, in his first statement as SNC chief, vowed to “work with other components of the Syrian opposition to accelerate the fall of the (president’s) criminal regime”. The umbrella group also elected 11 members to sit on its executive committee, including Sabra. Four members are new and three others are Islamists.
Heavy fighting sent thousands fleeing across the border into Turkey, as Assad said his future could only be decided at the ballot box. The UN said more than 11,000 Syrians had fled in the previous 24 hours alone, including 9,000 into Turkey, bringing to more than 408,000 the number of registered Syrian refugees in the region. At least 114 people were killed nationwide, including 53 soldiers and 47 civilians.
