Syria rebel leader al-Asaad wounded by blast

An FSA spokesman told the BBC he lost a leg and was now in a Turkish hospital.

Meanwhile, Moaz al-Khatib, who resigned as head of the opposition National Coalition on Sunday, has said he plans to address a summit in Qatar this week.
In a statement on his Facebook page, Khatib said that after “consulting trustworthy figures”, he had “decided to make a speech in the name of the Syrian people”.

Nizar al-Haraki, the coalition’s envoy in Doha, said Khatib would head the Syrian opposition delegation filling the seat of Syria at the Arab League meeting. Syria’s membership was suspended in November 2011.

Khatib complained in his resignation statement on Sunday about foreign powers, which he claimed were withholding aid from the opposition while trying to control it.
“They support whomever is ready to obey, and the one who refuses has to face starvation and siege,” he said. “We will not beg to satisfy anyone, and if there is a decision to execute us as Syrians, so let it be.”

His decision came five days after the coalition elected Ghassan Hitto as prime minister of an interim government, which he considered premature.
The FSA spokesman told BBC Arabic that Col Asaad had been conducting a tour of the eastern town of Mayadeen on Sunday night when a bomb exploded near his car.
He was seriously injured and lost a leg, Col Aref al-Hummoud said.

Col Asaad was later transferred to a hospital in Turkey for treatment and his condition was stable, the FSA spokesman added.
A relative of Col Asaad and a Turkish official also confirmed that he was being treated in Turkey and that his injuries were not believed to be life threatening.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the bombing.
Col Asaad, a former Syrian Air Force commander, defected to the opposition in July 2011 and set up the Free Syrian Army a month later in Turkey. — bbc.co.uk.