Al-Assad: Enemies of Syria 'will go to hell'

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad stood firm Sunday against global calls for him to step down, blaming a conspiracy for his country's turmoil and lambasting "enemies" for the incessant bloodshed.

"This is a conflict of those who wanted to take revenge against the people to fragment Syria. Those are the enemies of the people and the enemies of God. And the enemies of God will go to hell," the president told a packed auditorium of supporters.

His speech, carried live on state-run TV, is al-Assad's first since June. Since then, tens of thousands of Syrians have been killed, and the country is no closer to a resolution.

During his last publicized speech in June, al-Assad called for unity.

"We are in a state of real war, in every aspect of the words. And when we're in a state of war, all of our politics has to be concentrated on winning this war," al-Assad said at the time.

On Sunday, the president denied his forces are behind the 21 months of violence that has wrought misery across the country.

"Many have fallen on the trap that the conflict is between the government and the opposition. ... The conflict, ladies and gentlemen, is between the homeland and its enemies -- between the people and the killers and the criminals," al-Assad said.

Battles between al-Assad's forces and rebels seeking his ouster are raging closer to the president's doorstep, with some of the fiercest fighting taking place near Damascus.

Recent reports from inside Syria suggest rebels are gaining ground.

Opposition fighters chipped away at al-Assad's air power Saturday in the northwestern province of Idlib, where 800 rebels pummeled Taftanaz air base with anti-aircraft guns and tanks, a rebel leader said.

"The fight is closing in on them," rebel leader Capt. Islam Aloush said from Damascus. He said the head of the base was killed.

Al-Assad's forces use the base to launch helicopter attacks on nearby towns. Syrian warplanes dropped cluster bombs on Taftanaz in a raid that destroyed several buildings, the opposition Local Coordination Committees of Syria said Saturday.

Aloush said his militia and other groups want to target the many military bases in Idlib "to minimize the reach of the regime's warplanes," which opposition say attack civilians areas.

Opposition and government sources report that the extremist al-Nusra Front, which the United States has designated as a terrorist group with links to al Qaeda in Iraq, is taking part in the assault on Taftanaz.

Farther south in the Damascus suburbs, government forces have been cutting off food and medical supplies for weeks, Aloush said.

"They have sometimes resorted to field executions when they find people smuggling in syringes and other basic medical items," he said.

Other dissident groups have also reported the government ratcheting up the violence near the capital.

In an open letter Friday, Ahmed Moaz al-Khatib, head of the National Coalition of Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces, implored the U.N. Security Council and world leaders to take action.

"Our people are subjected to genocide, and our country is being destroyed as the international silence is only encouraging the regime to commit more crimes against humanity," he wrote. "Halting massacres in Syria is an international obligation everyone should bear responsibility for."

More than 60,000 people have been killed across Syria since demonstrators protested against the Syrian government in March 2011.