Assad: Aleppo truce 'worthy of study'

A statement from Bashar al-Assad's office on Monday said that the Syrian president was willing to consider UN envoy Staffan de Mistura's suggestion of negotiating a localized truce in the flashpoint city of Aleppo.

"President Assad has been informed by de Mistura of the main points of his initiative," the statement, released on state news agency SANA after the two held talks in Damascus, said. "[Assad] said it was worthy of study and that work on it is needed … in order to re-establish security in Aleppo."

De Mistura has twice visited Syria since his appointment to the UN role in July. He proposed his latest "action plan" for Syria on October 30, suggesting a "freeze" of fighting in local areas to allow for aid deliveries and to lay the groundwork for peace talks.

The envoy also visited the central city of Homs on Monday, where he was expected to meet a delegation representing armed groups from al-Waar, the last rebel-held part of the city.

Syria's civil war, which began in March 2011 as public protests against Assad's government, has claimed an estimated 200,000 lives. De Mistura's predecessors Lakhdar Brahimi and Kofi Annan tried several times without success to implement a ceasefire; two rounds of talks in Geneva earlier this year failed to bear fruit.

Scientists targeted near Damascus

Also on Monday, activists and a pro-government website both reported that four Syrian nuclear scientists were killed near the capital Damascus. Gunmen opened fire on their bus in an area where there has been no fighting, suggesting that they were the targets of the attack.

Rami Abdurrahman of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a group based in Britain relying on activists in Syria, said an Iranian nuclear scientist was also killed in the attack. The government-friendly website "Damas Now" also said that a fifth person was killed, without providing information on their nationality.

The attack took place near a bridge on a highway just north of the capital, Adurrahman said.

"There were no clashes there at all. It was an operation to assassinate them," Abdurrahman said.

Pro-government newspaper Al-Watan suggested that the al Qaeda-linked Nusra Front was behind the attack. Syrian facilities suspected of being used for military and nuclear research have been targeted in the past. Last May, an Israeli airstrike targeted a military and scientific research center near Damascus.

msh/glb (AFP, AP)