Assad criticises US and Britain over rebel aid

Syria’s president has harshly criticised US and British aid to the country’s rebels and set harsh terms for talking to his opponents in a newspaper interview published yesterday, as fighting raged across the country.

Rebels made significant gains in the heavily contested north-eastern Syrian, capturing a police academy complex west of Aleppo and storming the central prison in the city of Raqqa, as well as a border crossing along Syria’s frontier with Iraq, activists said.

President Bashar Assad took a tough line against his opponents in the interview with London’s Sunday Times, pulling back on earlier hints of flexibility about talks.