Assad coordinating terror attacks with Al Qaeda

A former Syrian envoy who defected to the opposition last week has said President Bashar al-Assad's government was collaborating with Al Qaeda militants to cause terror attacks in Syria, warning that the cornered regime may use chemical weapons against its own people.

Nawaf Fares, ex-ambassador to Iraq, said that major bombings across Syria were orchestrated by the regime in collaboration with Al Qaeda.

He claimed that Sunni Muslim militants in the terror network were collaborating with the Syrian government, which is dominated by those from the minority Allawite sect a Shia group.

"There is enough evidence in history that lots of enemies meet when their interests meet," he said in explaining the surprising alliance of Shia and Sunnis.

"Al Qaeda is searching for space to move and means of support, the regime is looking for ways to terrorise the Syrian people," the former diplomat said.

He said there were reports, though unconfirmed, that such weapons might have already been used to quell a popular uprising that has left some 16,000 people dead in the last 16 months.

"There is information, unconfirmed information of course, that chemical weapons have been used partially in the city of Homs," Fares told the BBC.

The Mideast country is known to have a huge stockpile of chemical weapons. Syrian neighbours and Western powers have time and again raised their concern about the security of such weapons if the Assad the regime falls.

Fares, who has previously held senior positions in the ruling Ba'ath party and powerful security services, and served as governor in several provinces, was asked if Assad might use chemical weapons against the opposition.

He didn't rule out the possibility and told the BBC that Assad was "a wounded wolf and cornered".

"It doesn't occur to any Syrian, not only me, that Bashar al-Assad will let go of power through political interventions... He will be ousted only by force," the former diplomat said.

Fares appeared pessimistic about UN-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan's current visit to Russia to convince Moscow on possible UN sanctions against the Assad government.

He said success in Russia was "impossible".

"Several months have passed and... the regime hasn't implemented a single article of (Annan's) plan."

Russia and China, the two veto-wielding powers of the UNSC, have blocked two previous UN resolutions that condemned President Assad's government for the continuing violence.